The Boy Scouts First Camp Fire | Page 5

to pull you up again; and besides, Allan says the top of the rotten
stump would like as not give way, if anybody tried to stand on it. But
I've sent Giraffe back to the spring after the ax we carried. We'll just
have to cut a hole, and let you climb out that way."
"But be careful not to give me a jab, won't you, please, Thad?" asked
the other, between his groans. "I'm bad enough off as it is, without
losing a leg."
"Don't be afraid," replied the scout-master; "we're going to let Allan do
the job, and few fellows know how to handle an ax as well as he does.
And here's the tool right now; Giraffe made pretty quick time."
"But what do you want me to do?" asked the prisoner of the stump,
piteously.
"Why, here's a hole already, big enough for me to stick my hand in;
feel that, do you, Bumpus?" and Thad inserted his hand, to clutch the
leg of the other.
"Oh! how you scared me at first, Thad; I sure thought it was a wildcat,
or something, that had grabbed me. I'm trembling all over, what with
the bites, the tumble, and the excitement."
"Now keep as far back from this side as you can," continued the other.
"Is the hollow big enough to allow that, Bumpus?"

"It surely is, Thad," replied the other, somewhat more cheerfully, as if
the confident manner in which Thad went about his business reassured
him. "Guess there must be nearly a foot of space between."
"That's fine," Thad went on to say; "now keep back, and leave it all to
Allan. He's going to commence chopping."
Immediately there sounded the stroke of the descending ax.
"Huh! went all the way through, that time," said Step-hen, who was
watching the operation closely; "reckon the old tree must be as rotten as
punk."
"Make a dandy blaze, all right," ventured Giraffe, whose mind was bent
on fires, so that he never lost a chance for making one; and who loved
to sit and watch it burn, much as the old fire worshippers might have
done in long-ago times.
"Take care, Allan," remarked Thad; "don't strike so hard next time.
Why, you'll knock a hole in that stump in a jiffy. It's only a shell."
"I could drop the whole thing in fifteen minutes, believe me," answered
the boy who wielded the ax so cleverly, having learned the trick from
the native woodsmen up in Maine, his native State.
Again the sharp-edged tool descended; and the hole grew considerably
larger. The prisoner kept urging them to make more haste, and exclaim
that he was swelling up so fast as a result of his bites, that he'd soon be
unable to crawl out, even if half the tree trunk were chopped away.
But Allan was a methodical chap, and could not be urged into
carelessness when making use of such a dangerous tool as a keen-edged
ax. He chopped close to the imaginary line he had drawn; and as large
chips fell in a shower the aperture increased in size until they could see
the lower limbs of the prisoner.
"Can't you drop down on your hands and knees, Bumpus?" called Thad.
"I should think the hole was big enough now to let you get out."

"Oh! I'll try," wailed the other; "I'm willing to do anything you say,
Thad, if only you can patch me up, and keep me from bursting. There, I
did manage to squeeze down on my knees; but I don't believe I can ever
get through."
"We're willing to help you, old fellow," remarked Davy, as he seized
hold of a hand; while Step-hen took the other; and between them they
pulled, while Bumpus used his legs to kick backward; and finally he
was dragged triumphantly out of his strange prison.
But when the boys saw his swollen face they stopped their loud
laughing; for although the fat boy tried to grin good-naturedly, he was
such a sight that pity took the place of merriment in the hearts of his
chums.
The vicious ants had really bitten his cheeks so that they were swollen
up very much, and Bumpus looked like a boy with the mumps.
CHAPTER III.
THE ACCUSATION MADE BY STEP-HEN.
"Am I going to swell up any more, Thad; and will you just have to put
hoops on me to keep me from bursting?" asked Bumpus, earnestly.
The other fellows wanted to laugh, but to their credit be it said that they
restrained this feeling. It would be heartless, with poor Bumpus looking
so badly.
"Oh! don't get that notion into your head," said the young leader; for as
assistant scout-master, in the absence of Dr. Philander, Thad was
supposed to take