As the afternoon began to wear away, after they had partaken of a light cold lunch that was not at all satisfactory to Giraffe, who declared at its close he was nearly starved, all of them began to keep a bright look-out for some decent sort of dry land where they might camp for the coming night.
“Because,” said Smithy, who liked plenty of room, “it would be manifestly next to impossible for four fellows to stretch out comfortably in such a narrow craft as this canoe,”—Smithy always liked to use big words, and was moreover very precise in his mode of speech, but a pretty good fellow all the same, a great change having come over him since he took up being a scout, and ceased to cater to his former “sissy” weaknesses along the line of extreme “dudishness,” as Giraffe always called it.
“Well, I should say, yes,” burst forth Davy Jones; “if you think you’d have a bad time, just cast your eye over this way and tell me what’d become of us, once Bumpus started stretching himself out all over the boat. When he’s sitting up it’s bad enough, but lying down would make the situation er—er——”
“Intolerable, I suppose you mean, Davy,” supplemented Smithy, promptly.
“Yes, in more ways than one it would be,” declared the Jones boy, darkly.
“Well, don’t worry,” Bumpus told him, calmly; “because right now I guess Thad’s got his eye on a real nice camp site, if that grin on his face stands for anything, and I think it does. How about it, Mr. Scout-master; have you struck solid land?”
“I see a place ahead that looks kind of good to me,” Thad replied; “but because lots of things don’t happen to turn out as well as they promise, we’ll have to wait till we get there before we’ll know for sure. And as we’re all tired of prowling around in this way for one day, I think we’ll hold up, providing the chance comes along.”
“Even half a chance, Thad,” urged Davy, hurriedly; “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Beggars shouldn’t be choosers, my ma always says, when I begin to hesitate about taking something that’s offered. Half a loaf’s some better’n no bread. And as for me, I’m fairly wild to get out and stretch my weary limbs, and also mingle with my other pards.”
“Other pards, huh!” sniffed Bumpus, who knew very well that this was intended as another little fling at him, though it failed to make even a dent in his resolution not to give in to the requests of these complaining fellows.
They were soon alongside the patch of high ground discovered by Thad; and when they found that it offered a splendid site for a dry camp, all of them were pleased. The way they proceeded to tumble out of the boats told that their limbs had been more or less cramped by sitting so long, for as many as seven hours had elapsed since they embarked.