Page:Boy scouts in the White Mountains; the story of a long hike (IA boyscoutsinwhite00eato).pdf/246

 log and bark lean-to, with the back and sides enclosed, built facing the six or eight foot straight side of a huge boulder. This boulder side was black with the smoke of many fires. It was no more than four feet away from the front of the lean-to, so that a big fire, built against it, would throw back a lot of warmth right into the shelter. All about the hut were beautiful thick evergreens.

"That's a fine idea!" Art exclaimed. "You not only have your fire handy, and sheltered completely from the wind, but you get the full heat of it. Say, we must build a camp just like this when we get back!"

"Somebody was here last night," said Rob, inspecting the ashes in the stone fire pit. "Look, they are still wet. Soused their fire, all right."

"And left a bed of boughs—for two," added Peanut, peeping into the shelter.

"Let's leave our stuff, so we'll have first call on the cabin to-night," somebody else put in. "Will it be safe, though?"

"Sure," the Scout Master said—"safe from people, anyhow. The folks who tramp up here are honest, I guess. But I don't trust the hedgehogs too far. The last time I slept in Tuckerman's, five or six years ago, two of us camped out on the shore of Hermit Lake, and the hedgehogs ate holes in our rubber ponchos while we slept."