“I’m going to walk on ahead,” he remarked. “I may be able to catch a few rare bugs. I think I can find the way to the canal all right, in case you don’t overtake me.”
“It’s a straight road,” called Ned, who had provided himself with maps of their journey.
The professor walked on, swinging his net from side to side in an endeavor to catch a butterfly or bug.
“Has he been that way long?” asked one of the men of Jerry, as there came a pause in the work of shifting the boat.
“What way?”
“Cracked, you know. Crazy—bug-house? Does he get violent?”
“Oh!” laughed the tall lad. “He’s not crazy,” and then he explained what a scientist Mr. Snodgrass was.
“Um,” said the man apparently unconvinced. “It does take queer forms, sometimes. I had a cousin who always wanted to sleep with his shoes on. No accounting for their notions. Come on, now, all together! Heave!”
Jerry gave up the attempt to make the man understand, and, a little later, the boat was shifted back to its place, and the journey resumed.