it--even if they was five or six miles out on the ice floes. He
wouldn't listen to me. The Captain backed him up, an' they both set to
an' built a fire as big as a tepee.

"We was pretty well tuckered out from the day's walkin'. So after
supper we dried our moccasins an' was about to turn in early when--lo
an' behold!--the Archdeacon got up an' piled more wood upon the fire.
That made me mad; for unless he was huntin' for trouble he couldn't 'a'
done a thing more foolish, an' I says somethin' to that effect. He
comes back at me as though I was afraid o' me own shadder, an' says:
'Billy Brass, I'm s'prised that a man like you doesn't put more faith
in prayin' an' trustin' hisself in the hands o' the Almighty.'

"I was so hot over the foolishness of havin' such a big fire that I ups
an' says:

"'That may be all right for you, sir, but I prefer to use my wits
first, an' trust in Providence afterwards.'

"Nothin' more was said, an' we all turns in. I didn't like the idea of
every one goin' to sleep with a fire so big that it was showin' itself
for miles aroun', so I kep' myself awake. I wasn't exactly thinkin'
that somethin' really serious was goin' to happen, but I was just
wishin' it would, just to teach the Archdeacon a lesson. As time went
on I must 'a' done a little dozin'; for when I looks up at the Dipper
again, I learns from its angle with the North Star that it was already
after midnight. An'--would you believe it?--that fire was still
blazin' away nearly as big as ever. The heat seemed to make me drowsy,
for I began to doze once more. All at once I heard the dogs blowin' so
hard----"