“Please go and meet my boy. He has not a cent, and scarcely any clothes.”
“All right,” said Mr. Berkeley, when this characteristic message had been read and considered. “I shall be very glad to take a trip into summer land, for it is getting very bleak and cold up our way. Of course, your mother means that I shall take you with me, Miss Helen, and it will do you good, for if ever a girl needed to have plumpness and rosiness brought back to her cheeks, you do. The boys are bound to come down the St. John’s River to Jacksonville, and we can’t miss them.”
And so the two started for Florida.
“Won’t they be surprised when they see us?” said Helen, when she and Mr. Godfrey had taken their seats in the car.
“I hope so,” said Mr. Godfrey. “Half our pleasure will be lost if we don’t astonish them.”
CHAPTER XI.
TWO EXPEDITIONS.
“Come from the river?” said the Indian who had shaken hands with Chap. “Been fishin’? Where’s the rest of ’em?”
The very fair English which this Indian spoke was a new surprise to Chap, and for an instant he wondered how the man knew there were any more of them; but as any one might reasonably suppose that a young fellow like himself would not come into this part of the country alone, the question seemed sensible enough. The other Indian now came up, and, without saying anything, seemed very anxious to hear what should be said.
Chap then briefly related his story. For some reason which he could not explain he had for these Indians a feeling very different from that with which, from the very first, he had regarded the untidy young men. To be sure, he had answered their questions, for there seemed to be no good reason for refusing; but he had felt all along that they were unpleasant companions, and had hoped they would soon go away. But these Indians seemed to have honest faces, and to take a friendly interest in what he told them.