cleared away from a spot about fifteen feet square, and piled up
around the outside, so that it looked like a little breastwork.

The lean-to was not a very imposing structure--Godfrey would much
rather sit in the sun and smoke his pipe then expend any of his
strength in providing for his comfort--but it was large enough to
shelter one man, and with a few more pieces of bark on the roof and a
roaring fire in front, it might have been made a very pleasant and
inviting camp. Just now, however, it looked cheerless enough. There
was a little armful of leaves under the roof of the lean-to and there
was a block of wood beside the fire-place, the position of which was
pointed out by a bed of ashes and cinders. The leaves served for a
bed and the block of wood for a chair; and they were all the
"furniture" that was to be seen about the camp. But Godfrey was very
well satisfied with his surroundings and Dan was delighted with them.
It must be splendid, he thought, to live there all by one's self with
nothing to worry over and no work to do. It was not even necessary
that Godfrey should chop wood for the fire, for the upper end of the
island was covered with broken logs and branches, and five minutes'
work every morning would suffice to provide him with all the fuel he
would be likely to burn during the day.

"What a nice place you've got here, pap!" said Dan, when he had taken
a hurried survey of the camp.

"I reckon it's about right," replied Godfrey. "I had this fur a
hidin' place while the Yanks was a scoutin' about through the
country, an' I come here now kase nobody won't think of lookin' fur
me so nigh the settlement. An' they won't stumble onto me afore I
know it, nuther. They can't git to me if they come afoot kase the