“Well, don’t then, you miser!” said Aaron.
Suddenly Nils, with a slyer look than usual on his sly face, went down into the cabin. A minute after he came stamping up again.
“Mother, Mother! The coffee is boiling over. Hurry!”
Mrs. Lind waddled hastily across the deck and squeezed herself down the narrow stairway.
“Come now!” called Nils guardedly to the boys on shore. “Come now! Hurry up and take some apples.”
The boys on the wharf did not wait to be called again but jumped upon the deck and rushed at the bags of fruit.
“Mother, Mother!” roared Nils. “Hurry! There are thieves at the apples! Oh, hurry!”
In an incredibly short time Mrs. Lind had come upstairs, and there stood Mr. Lind also, exactly as if he had shot up out of the ground.
Nils declared loudly: “Before I knew a thing about it, these boys rushed on board and began grabbing some of the best apples.”
Oh, how Mr. Lind and his wife scolded as they seized the astounded boys! Mr. Lind held two of them and Mrs. Lind two—she had a remarkably strong grip—while Nils flew after a policeman. The frightened boys cried and begged to be set free. A crowd gathered on the wharf in no time.