with our axes."

They cut out all the splinters and other projections, smoothing
off the round walls and the floor, and they also extended the
hollow overhead somewhat.

"This is to be a two-story annex," said Dick. "We need lots of
room."

High up they ran small poles across, fixing them firmly in the
tree on either side, and lower down they planted many wooden pegs
and hooks on which they might hang various articles.

"Everything will keep dry in here," said Albert. "I would not
mind sleeping in the Annex, but when the door is closed there
won't be a particle of air."

It was the "door" that gave them the greatest trouble. The
opening by which they entered the hollow was about four feet high
and a foot and a half across, and both boys looked at it a long
time before they could see a way to solve the puzzle.

"That door has to be strong enough to keep everything out," said
Dick. "We mean to keep most of our meat supply in there, and
that, of course, will draw wild animals, little and big; it's the
big ones we've got to guard against."

After strenuous thinking, they smoothed off all the sides of the
opening in order that a flat surface might fit perfectly against
them. Then Dick cut down a small oak, and split out several
boards--not a difficult task for him, as he had often helped to
make boards in Illinois. The boards were laid together the width
of the opening and were held in place by cross pieces fastened
with wooden pegs. Among their stores were two augers and two
gimlets, and they were veritable godsends; they enabled the boys
to make use of pegs and to save the few nails that they had for
other and greater emergencies.

The door was made, and now came the task to "hang" it. "Hang"
was merely a metaphorical word, as they fitted it into place
instead. The wood all around the opening was about a foot thick,
and they cut it out somewhat after the fashion of the lintels of
a doorway. Then they fitted in the door, which rested securely
in its grooves, but they knew that the claws of a grizzly bear or
mountain lion might scratch it out, and they intended to make it
secure against any such mischance.

With the aid of hatchet and auger they put three wooden hooks on
either side of the doorway, exactly like those that defend the
door of a frontier cabin, and into these they dropped three stout
bars. It was true that the bars were on the outside, but no wild
animal would have the intelligence eno