This was simply a long stick of white
spruce wood, one end of which was pointed, and stuck into the ground;
the other was split, and into it the candle was inserted, the elasticity
of the fresh wood keeping the light in place.
The tired hunter did not dawdle over his supper. In a quarter of an hour
he had finished it, and was building up the fire again. Then he
stretched himself beside the trio in the rude bunk, drawing one thin
blanket over him. Neal, who lay on his right, was conscious of some
prickings of excitement at having such a bedfellow on the
fir-boughs,--the camper's couch which levels all. There flashed upon the
fair-haired English boy a remembrance of how Cyrus had once said that
"in the woods manhood is the only passport." He thought that, measured
by this standard, Herb Heal had truly a royal charter, and might be a
president of the forest land; for he looked as free, strong, and
unconquerable as the forest wind.
CHAPTER XV.
A FALLEN KING.
The hunter was the only one who slept soundly that night on the fragrant
boughs.
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