and all such things. What bothered Nuthin concerned material things, like
cats, and dogs, and wandering bears; he snapped his fingers at spooks,
because he had never seen one, and did not believe in "fairy stories," as
he called them, anyway.

As the second boat came alongside, and her crew swarmed over the side,
there were plenty of hands to do things, though they naturally looked to
Paul for orders.

"A fire, first, fellows!" called out the scout master; "so we can see
what we're doing. Because it's getting pretty dark around here, with
these trees overhead. Jud, you take charge of that part, and the rest
gather wood."

Many hands make light work, and in what Bobolink called a "jiffy" there
came plenty of wood of all kinds, from dead branches to small-sized logs.

Jud, like every true scout, knew just how to go about starting a fire.
True, the recent rain had wet pretty much all of the wood, so that a
tenderfoot would have had a difficult task getting the blaze started,
though after that trouble had been surmounted it would not be so bad. But
Jud knew just how to split open a log, and find the dry heart that would
take fire easily; and in a brief time he had his blaze springing up.

Then others began to bring some of the things ashore, particularly the
tents, in which they expected to sleep during their stay.

Most of the boys were deeply impressed by the size of both the lake and
the island; since they had not dreamed that things would be upon such a
large scale.