They cut small saplings with their hatchets, and, with the little poles and fallen bark of last year, made a rude thatch which helped out the thick branches of the beeches overhead.

They also built up the sides of the hollow with the same materials, and the whole was done in less than ten minutes.

Then they raked in heaps of dead leaves and sat down upon them comfortably.

Many drops of water would come through the leaves and thatch, but such as they, hardened to the wilderness, would not notice them.
Meanwhile the storm was gathering with the rapidity so frequent in the great valley.

All the little clouds swung together and made a big one that covered nearly the whole sky.