Читать книгу Camping in the Winter Woods: Adventures of Two Boys in the Maine Woods онлайн

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“Sure I will,” promised the guide; and then he extinguished the lantern and ordered the boys to go to sleep.

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When the boys awakened it was daylight; and, to their surprise, Ben was missing from the camp. They looked for him outside, but, not finding him, decided he had gone to skin and quarter the deer. They busied themselves with making a fire, that it might be ready for the guide to cook breakfast over when he returned.

“It looks foggy,” suggested Ed, gazing off between the trees.

“That’s not fog, it’s smoke!” George declared, sniffing the air suspiciously. “Don’t you smell it?”

“Right you are, son,” said Ben, coming into camp at that moment carrying the head, skin, and fore quarters of the deer. “It’s smoke, and I don’t like it a little bit. There’s a forest fire not a great ways off, and we better mosey toward the cabin. We’ll hustle through breakfast and then travel on,” he declared, uneasily.

The boys helped get breakfast, and when it was ready they ate rapidly and in silence. From the way Ben consulted the sky they knew he was anxious and worried. The sun had risen, but was obscured by a purplish haze which he told them was smoke. Then they smelled it. The distinct odor of burning pine was borne to them on the scant morning breeze.