"Grizzly bear!" said Jimmy, whom Frank had released. "Something ten times worse than a bear has seized my toe and bitten it off, or nearly so, and then I hit my head against the roof, and Frank half choked me. I think it is a great deal too bad."
"You must have been dreaming, Jimmy," said Frank; "there is nothing here that could bite your toe."
"But I can feel that it is bleeding!" answered Jimmy, in a very injured tone of voice.
At that moment a noise in the corner of his berth attracted their attention.
"Oh, it must have been the hawks!" said Dick, and he and Frank went off into fits of laughter, which only grew more boisterous as Jimmy proceeded to light a candle, and bind his toe up with a piece of sticking-plaster, grumbling all the time, and casting savage glances at the offending birds.
The light was put out, and they once more went to bed, Jimmy taking care to tuck his feet well under him. Every now and then a smothered burst of laughter from the other berths told him that his friends were still enjoying the joke, and then, as his toe began to pain him less, his sense of the ludicrous overcame his sense of outraged dignity, and just as Dick and Frank were dropping off to sleep, they were again startled by a peal of laughter from Jimmy.
"Oh dear!" said Frank, "you will be the death of us, Jimmy. Have you only now discovered the joke?"
"Oh, don't make me laugh any more. My sides are aching so," said Dick.
Once more composed, they went to sleep, and awoke early in the morning to find that the gale had spent itself, and that a soft air from the south blew warmly over the land. The sun shone his brightest, and the birds sang their merriest. They had a bathe in the clear river water, and dressed leisurely on the top of their cabin, while the sun, which had not risen very long, threw their shadows, gigantic in size, over the green meadows, which were covered with silvery gossamers—and then they were witnesses of a curious phenomenon. Their shadows had halos of light around them, extending about eighteen inches from each figure, all around it. The strong light from behind them, shining on the wet and gleaming gossamers, was no doubt the cause of this singular appearance. The same sight has been seen when the grass was wet with dew.
"The fields are quite silvery with the gossamer," said Dick. "Is it not pretty!"