Chums of the Camp Fire | Page 5

Lawrence J. Leslie
shouldn't take chances."
"Come along this way and we'll soon have a jolly blaze started," said
Max, who was accustomed to acting as leader, though never at any time
becoming officious to an extent that might be displeasing.
There was plenty of good wood handy, and certainly those lads knew
every little trick connected with building fires; so that in a very short
time the cheery flames were jumping merrily upward, and a genial
warmth was disseminated that felt unusually pleasant to the boy who
had commenced shivering in his wet clothes.
"Now peel off right away, and we'll see about drying your duds!" Max
told him.
"Y-y-you might p-p-put on my sweater while we're d-d-doing the
same," added Toby, who was as generous a boy as could be found in a
day's journey afield.
"That's kind of you, Toby, and if you think you won't need it right away,

guess I ought to accept. You see I ain't used to prancing around in April
without my clothes on. Hang it on that branch, Max; it'll be close
enough to steam without getting' scorched. How long will it take to dry
my shirt out, d'ye think?"
"Oh! perhaps only a matter of fifteen minutes or so," replied the other,
as he proceeded to arrange all the other belongings of the unlucky
chum on adjacent bushes until, as Bandy-legs declared, it looked like
an "Irish wash-day."
Having donned Toby's gray sweater Steve did not feel so badly. He
kept turning around by the fire, first warming one side and then the
other, and all the while dancing up and down so as to keep his blood in
good circulation; for Max had told him to do this, and surely Max knew
what was best.
Toby kept the fire going by feeding fresh fuel from time to time. A fire
was one of the things Toby certainly loved. Whenever he took the time
to ponder over past events that had marked the companionship of these
four lads, the various campfires they had shared in common stood out
as oases in a desert. Toby was apt to figure past happenings as
connected with the time "we had that dandy blaze under the twisted
hemlock"; or "that night I built the champion cooking fire any campers
ever had along."
By degrees Steve's apparel dried sufficiently for him to get into it again.
He did not look very spruce and clean though, after his recent
immersion, for the mud had dried. Steve had the appearance of a tramp,
as Bandy-legs assured him, knowing that the other was as a rule
addicted to taking especial pains with his clothes, pressing them out
every week so that the creases would show at the proper angles, and all
that nonsense.
"Well, when we get home it's apt to be dusk, anyway," said reckless
Steve; "and we won't be meeting up with anybody on the road. If we do
I'll dodge in the bushes till they get past. But notice that I got what I
went after, boys!"

That was generally the main thing with Steve, to get what he went after,
no matter how strenuous a time he experienced in accomplishing his
aim. With him the end always justified the means. And looking back
over the experiences of the last two years his chums could remember
many times when this ambition carried the impetuous one into a heap
of trouble, from which he was rescued only after considerable
difficulty.
After Steve had fully dressed the four comrades started out once more,
bent on following the shore of the big pond the balance of the way
around, so as to pot such other incautious frogs as might have been
tempted by the brightness of the day to mount the bank, and bask in the
sunshine.
"This fine weather isn't going to stay with us, I'm afraid, boys," Max
remarked, as they went on, Bandy-legs in advance, for it was his next
turn with the target rifle.
"What makes you say that, Max?" demanded Steve, a little testily.
"Well, in the first place there's a queer feeling in the air that seems to
tell of a storm coming along," replied the other; "then if you look away
over to the southwest you'll see a low bank of clouds. There's some
wind in that bunch of clouds if I know anything about weather signs.
And besides the paper said we'd have a blow some time soon."
"Hope she gets over with before next week, when we want to hike up
into the woods for our first camp this season; that's all I can say,"
Bandy-legs observed over his shoulder, for he could hear what his
chums were talking about, being only a short distance ahead of them,
though closer to the shore of
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