Scooter, done buttoning up the Coleman stove and drying the last dish, roots around in the bottom of the cooler and grabs and ice cold Bud. "Hey Hal!" he says in a loud whisper, "You want one?"

Hal grunts and soon Scooter joins him down on the sandbar. Deep in a philosophical discussion on the many uses of a bailer during long lake crossings, Scooter absent-mindedly reaches for his beer. Wrapping his fist tightly around the lantern, he shriekes and heaves the super-hot object into the air, which cartwheels a few times, and lands plop, in the sand. Their world is suddenly plunged into darkness. Hal, on his knees, begins the search for his candle lantern. Meanwhile, Scooter conducts a two-fold treatment for his burn with the ice-cold beer, both by cooling his hand and by enjoying the medicinal effect.

Hal carefully avoids the same injury when he locates the lantern. Sand mixed with wax coats the inside and outside of the thing, making it fairly useless, and will no longer fits into his neoprene lantern case ($7.95 at your local outfitter). Scratching his head, then picking the cheese out of his nails, Hal trudges up to the camp and gets a pot of water boiling.

To restore the lamp, he removes the candle, and the plastic base. The rest goes into the boiling water. As the wax melts, it floats to the top, where he can pour it off. All the while, he is careful to use one of Scooter's pots, so as not to ruin his own. After most of the wax is gone or melted, he fishes the pieces out and gingerly runs a rag (Scooter's sock) through to get the rest of the tenacious grit and wax off.

Restored to functioning, Hal relights the wick and heads back down with more therapeutics for his injured paddling buddy.

(Note: the author has had success with the above procedures a number of times. But, there is no guarantee.)

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