Meanwhile, Dan had been welcomed with a great din, and yet his first act was to brush the many hands aside and wait for his rival to come along.
“You’d have beaten me easy, Peg,” he told the disappointed chum, “except for that little trick I played. There wasn’t nearly so much water in my boat as I made out. But it was a lively race, all right, and you’re a game one to the bone.”
Shortly afterwards a number of the boys started off with pails. Eddie Grant and his two comrades from the mills realized that since the weather was propitious and the harvest of blueberries abundant on the island, they must not lose any more time than could be helped.
Just as had been planned by Mr. Bartlett and Dick, a number of the other generous campers insisted on accompanying the pickers. Eddie objected at first, but seeing that the boys were intent on going along his remonstrances died away.
“We want to say we’ve picked a few bushels of those whopping big berries ourselves,” said Peg, honestly. “It’ll be heaps of fun, you know, and give some other fellows an afternoon off to try the fishing.”
“Besides,” added Fred Bonnicastle, just as determined to be of assistance to the workers in the mills, who he had discovered were fine chaps, “we all of us like blueberries, and have been dipping a little into the stock of those you gathered on Saturday. We want to make the loss good, and feel that we’re returning good measure every time. So don’t say another word, Eddie. You just can’t shoo us back.”
At that Eddie Grant laughed.
“Oh, well,” he said, “now that we know for sure that a real live monkey is loose on Bass Island I reckon there’ll be safety in numbers. If he tackles us, six are better than just three.”
“Oh! you can’t frighten us by that kind of talk,” jeered Peg. “All of us will go with a club in our hands, as well as a bucket. And say! perhaps we’d better manage to keep within call of each other. Seems to me I’ve read about these gorillas carrying children off sometimes.”
“Well, that may be worrying you, Peg, but the rest of us don’t consider ourselves in the baby class,” remarked Phil, at which there was a general laugh in which Peg joined.