“Well, what are you afraid of, then? Come along.”
“I’m afraid of you. I’ll go over to the bay in my ‘light canoe.’”
As he still refused to listen to the boys, Jock said: “Let him come in the canoe, fellows. He’d only tip us over if we took him in the skiff.”
“I’m learning to paddle my own canoe,” called Ben, as his friends started. “I’m like the little busy bee, which improves each shining hour—”
“Come on, Ben,” called Bob. “You’ll be late, and we’ll lose the steamer.”
Ben smiled as he took his place in the canoe, and, grasping his paddle, sent his craft swiftly over the water. Soon he had overtaken his companions, and despite the efforts of Jock, who was rowing, to keep up with him, speedily passed the skiff, and arrived at the bay long before they did. The boys discovered him seated on the edge of the dock, swinging his long legs over the water, and gazing with an air of abstraction about him.
“Why, hello, fellows! Where’d you come from?” he exclaimed, as the skiff approached.
“That’s what you’ve been doing mornings, when you were up so long before us, was it?” said Jock, as the boys landed. “I must say you have improved, Ben, in your ‘canoemanship.’ What are you thinking of?”
Whatever the thoughts in Ben’s mind may have been he did not give them utterance, and after the boys had left the boat in charge of a man at the bay, they all returned and joined him on the dock.