“Well, den,” said Sam thoughtfully. “Don’t you reckon we-all’d better leave off turpentinin’ an’ go into de bee bizness? I knows where dere’s heaps of bee trees. Only,” he added, “I’s afraid dese here swamp bees ain’t never learned to do no such stunts as you-all talk ’bout.”
“Sam’s right,” said Bob. “These swamp bees are a pretty scrub lot, I expect. Breed counts as much in bees as it does in horses. But all we have to do is to give these bees an Italian queen-mother. All the new bees hatching out then would be pure Italians, and in a few weeks the whole swarm would be through-bred.”
“Well, it sounds mighty interesting,” said Joe, “and I’d like to go into it, if I could only raise some capital. I’m sorry now I left Burnam in such a hurry. I think I’ll see him when we get back, and find out what he’s going to do.”
“Hi!” shouted Sam suddenly. “Dere’s de river!”
So it was. The bayou had opened out, and just ahead they saw the wide flood of the Alabama.
“Thank goodness! We’re out of the swamps at last!” Bob exclaimed with great feeling.
But as the houseboat came into the current of the big stream, turning southward, her bottom grounded. She swung off a little, turned half about, and stuck solidly.
“Stuck on a sand-bar at the last minute!” Joe groaned in disgust.
Sounding with a stick, they found scarcely three feet of water over the side. The boat was hard and fast, and the current was pushing her more into the shoal at every moment. The boys stripped off the greater part of their clothing and got overboard. They heaved and hauled at the boat, tried to scrape away the sand, labored in the water for more than an hour, and finally gave it up temporarily and returned on board to rest. Then they attacked it again, but it was late in the afternoon when they finally got her afloat again, by the use of enormous levers brought from the woods.
Pushing out into the full current of the river, they let her drift, feeling at last tolerably sure that the adventure was almost over. They got out the provisions and ate them on the foreward deck-space. The sun went down; the dusk fell fast, but they saw no light ashore that would indicate any landing where they could put up the houseboat and find transportation for themselves.