Of course Elmer, who had roved more or less, was not in this class. He knew better than to make fun of them, however. Between himself and Mark they had many a quiet laugh over the way the fellows made out to be so free from care.
"I bet you it seems like a coon's age to some of them since they said good-by to mother and father," Mark managed to remark, as they stood there watching the rest gaze down river after the vanished link that was to bind them with civilization.
"Sure it does," Elmer had agreed. "Do you know that little story about the kid who ran away from home, and what an eternity it seemed to him?"
"I don't seem to remember," replied the other. "What happened, Elmer?"
"Why, he spent the day of his life, you know. He had made up his mind in the beginning that he would never come back. Then at noon he determined that a whole month would give his folks a good scare. The afternoon hung on terribly. Minutes seemed hours, and at last he just couldn't stand it any longer. He had spent his last penny, but it was getting night, and he had never been without a home in the dark before."
"Yes, I can understand that, because once I did it too," laughed Mark; "but don't mind me, Elmer, go right along with the story. What happened to him?"
"Nothing. That's where the fun came in," replied the other. "You see his folks understood that kid, and they just made up their minds to punish him by not paying the slightest attention to him. So he came sneaking into the sitting room where dad was reading the paper, and mom was knitting. Neither of them even looked at him. He thought that mighty queer, when he had expected to be hugged and kissed and cried over like one who had been lost a year.
"After a long time, when he had coughed, and moved about without either of them paying the slightest attention to him, the boy was struck with an idea. He would say something that must make them realize the near calamity that had happened. So he bent down to stroke the back of the old tabby that was purring by the fire, and he says, says he:
"'Oh! I see you still have the same old cat you used to have when I was home!'"
Mark burst into a hearty laugh.