In the meantime Jack scoured the island for some dry wood. In this he was not very successful, because everything was covered with snow, and when he tried to kindle a fire in the open space in front of our hut he found the task an exceedingly difficult one. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the oil stove with us, and the prospect of something warm to eat was exceedingly remote. We hadn't yet learned the trick of building a camp fire in wet weather. After exhausting our stock of paper Fred and I started over to Lumberville for several newspapers and a can of kerosene. We went to old Jim Halliday's, who had befriended us on one or two occasions the previous summer, and made known to him our troubles.

"What! A can of oil to build yer fire with? Well, ye won't git it from me. I know a man as got blowed up apourin' oil on a fire. Why, shucks, boys, you don't need no oil ner paper nuther on that there island. Its chuck-full of silver birch trees, and there ain't no better kindlin' than birch bark."

Birch bark! Why, yes, why hadn't we thought of that?

We had used it for torches the summer before and knew how nicely it burned. So back we skated to camp, and then, peeling off a large quantity of bark from the birch trees around us, we soon had a rousing big fire in front of the hut.