uick!--I have found a cavern."

Malleville went on, and presently she came in view of what Phonny
called a cavern. It was a place where two immense fragments of rock
leaned over toward each other, so as to form a sort of roof, beneath
which was an inclosure which Phonny called a cavern. He might perhaps
have more properly called it a grotto. There was a great flat stone at
the bottom of the cavern, which made an excellent floor, and there was
an open place in the top behind, where Phonny thought that the smoke
would go out if he should make a fire.

"There, Malleville," said Phonny, when she came where she could see
the cavern, "that is what I call a discovery. We will play that we are
savages, and that we live in a cavern."

Phonny rolled two large stones into the cavern, and placed them in the
back part of it, where he intended to build his fire. These stones
were for andirons. Then he began to bring in logs, and sticks, and
branches of trees, such as he found lying upon the ground dead and
dry. These he piled up inside of the cavern in a sort of corner, where
there was a deep recess or crevice, which was very convenient for
holding the wood.

Malleville helped him do all this. When a sufficient supply of wood
was gathered, Phonny laid some of it across his stone andirons, and
then prepared to light the fire.

He rubbed one of his matches against a dry log, and the match
immediately kindled. Phonny looked at the blue flame a moment, and
then, as if some sudden thought had struck him, he blew it out again,
and said,

"On the whole, I will go and ask Beechnut. We may as well be sure."

So he ran down from the entrance of the cavern, and thence along by
the way that they had come, through the thicket, until he came in
sight of Beechnut.

"Beechnut," said he, calling out very loud, "we have found a
cavern;--may we build a fire in it?"

"Yes," said Beechnut.

Then Phonny went back, and telling Malleville that Beechnut had said
yes, he proceeded to kindle his fire.

It happened that there were two large stones, tolerably square in
form, each of them, and flat upon the upper side, which were lying in
the cavern in such places as to be very convenient for seats. When the
fire began to burn, Phonny sat down upon one of these seats, and gave
Malleville the other. The fire blazed up very cheerily, and the smoke
and sparks, winding their way up the side of the rock, which formed
the back of the cavern, escaped out