“This is enough to give one the creeps,” was Whopper’s comment.  “I don’t want to sleep where there are bears to crawl over one.”

“Somebody will have to remain on guard after this until we get some sort of a shelter built,” said Shep, and so it was agreed.

“I am going to build a bear trap, too,” said Giant.  “An old hunter from the West was telling me of the kind some Indians make.  You take some logs and build a sort of raft of them and place it on the ground where the bear is likely to come.  You raise one corner of the raft up and fix a couple of sticks under it, each fastened to another stick with a strong cord.  On the cord you fasten the bait, and then on the top of the raft you pile some heavy stones.  When the bear comes he tries to get at the bait, but the only way he can get under the logs and stones is by dropping down on his side.  He works his way in, pulls on the bait, and down come the logs and stones on top of him holding him fast and most likely killing him.”

“That’s an idea!  We’ll make such a trap sure!” cried Whopper.

That day was a busy one for all hands.  To do as much work as possible on the shelter, only a few hours were spent in hunting and fishing.  But their luck was good and long before noon they had a dozen fish to their credit and also half a dozes rabbits, a wild turkey, three squirrels and some small birds.

“There, that will keep us going for a while,” declared Snap.  “Now let us turn all our attention to the cabin, so we can get away from Mr. Bear, if necessary.”

It was no easy matter to chop down the five trees to a height of about eight feet, but once this was done cabin building began in earnest, and by nightfall they had a rude roof over the posts and had the back logged up to a height of four feet.  The next day they went at the task at sunrise, finishing the back and putting in the two sides, one with a slit of a window, over which they nailed some slats, so that nothing of size might get through.

“Now this begins to look like something,” declared Shep.  “I am afraid the front with a door, though, is going to bother us.”

“We’ll work it somehow,” answered Snap, confidently.

In a few days the cabin was complete and it must be confessed that the young hunters were quite proud of their work.  They made a sort of mud plaster and with this filled up the chinks between the logs, and the roof they thatched with bark, so as to keep out the rain.  The floor they covered with pine boughs, piling the boughs high up at the back for a big couch upon which all might rest at night.  They also made a split-log bench and a rude table, from which they might eat when the weather drove them indoors.  But they were not equal to building a chimney, and so continued to do their cooking outdoors.

It was well that they hurried their cabin, for the day after it was completed a heavy and cold rain set in, lasting forty-eight hours.  Fortunately they had a fair supply of fish and game on hand, so nobody had to go forth while the elements raged.  They built a camp-fire close to the doorway of the cabin—–­under a sort of piazza top, and there took turns at cooking, and made themselves as comfortable as possible.