“Haven’t we?” cried Phil. “When my head was nearly jerked off, and three or four yards of tent hauled over my face?”
“And I was scared worse than if I had been pulled out of bed with a rake?” said Phœnix.
“Nothin’ to do with it!” exclaimed Adam. “When my rope was jerked out of sight and hearin’ in a minute, and the tarpaulin would ’a’ gone with it, if I hadn’t grabbed it? I should think we had something to do with it.”
“Perhaps you had,” said Chap, as he sat down on the sand to put on his shoes. “But I tell you what it is, fellows,” he added, with sparkling eyes, “if we could have tied a live alligator to a tree, it would have been a splendid thing to tell when we got home.”
“There is people,” said Adam, dryly, “who’d tell a story like that without tyin’ a ’gator to a tree.”
“But we are not that kind,” promptly answered Captain Chap.
“But I guess we won’t cry over spilt milk, or lost ropes, either,” said Adam; “and the best thing we kin do is to get along to John Brewer’s house and see about some breakfast.”
“We might catch some more fish,” said Chap, “and have breakfast before we started.”
“If you kin ketch some coffee,” said Adam, “I’ll be willin’ to talk about breakfast here; but I don’t want to make another meal off fish and warm water, if I can help it. John Brewer’s house is just the other side of that bend, and we’ll be there in half an hour.”
The tarpaulin was rolled up, each of the party picked up his individual traps, and, headed by Chap, they were soon walking along the shore of the river.