“Very well.  When it’s ready you may bring it in and we’ll eat on the table.  Lem will probably be awake by that time and he’ll want something too.  Stew the goose so that there’ll be broth, and we’ll give some of it to Lem to drink.  You’ll have to go to Fort Pelican without me.  I’ll have to stay here and take care of Lem.  If the wind comes up, and I think it will, you may get a start after dinner,” and Doctor Joe returned to the cabin to watch over his patient.

The goose was plucked.  David split a stick of wood, and with his jack-knife whittled shavings for the fire.  The knife had a keen edge, for David was a born woodsman and every woodsman keeps his tools always in good condition, and the shavings he cut were long and thin.  He did not cut each shaving separately, but stopped his knife just short of the end of the stick, and when several shavings were cut, with a twist of the blade he broke them from the main stick in a bunch.  Thus they were held together by the butt to which they were attached.  He whittled four or five of these bunches of shavings, and then cut some fine splints with his axe.

David was now ready to light his fire.  He placed two sticks of wood upon the ground, end to end, in the form of a right angle, with the opening between the sticks in the direction from which the wind came.  Taking the butt of one of the bunches of shavings in his left hand, he scratched a match with his right hand and lighted the thin end of the shavings.  When they were blazing freely he carefully placed the thick end upon the two sticks where they came together, on the inside of the angle, with the burning end resting upon the ground.  Thus the thick end of the shavings was elevated.  Fire always climbs upward, and in an instant the whole bunch of shavings was ablaze.  Upon this he placed the other shavings, the thin ends on the fire, the butts resting upon the two sticks at the angle.  With the splints which he had previously prepared arranged upon this they quickly ignited, and upon them larger sticks were laid, and in less than five minutes an excellent cooking fire was ready for the pot.

Before disjointing the goose, David held it over the blaze until it was thoroughly singed and the surface of the skin clear.  Then he proceeded to draw and cut the goose into pieces of suitable size for stewing, placed them in the kettle, and covered them with water from Lem’s spring.

In the meantime Andy cut a stiff green pole about five feet in length.  The thick end he sharpened, and near the other end cut a small notch.  Using the thick, sharpened end like a crowbar, he drove it firmly into the ground with the small end directly above the fire.  Placing a stone between the ground and sloping pole, that the pole might not sag too low with the weight of the kettle, he slipped the handle of the kettle into the notch at the small end of the pole, where it hung suspended over the blaze.

Preparing a similar pole, and placing it in like manner, Andy filled the tea-kettle and put it over the fire to heat for tea.