“I couldn’t guess.”
“Why in the water down yonder. Lying down and wallowing.”
“The naughty horse! Ah, here come the others! Good morning all.”
“We have been bathing,” said Archie. “Oh, how delicious!”
“Yes,” said Harry; “Johnnie and I were bathing down under the trees, and it really was a treat to see how quickly he came to bank when I told him there was an alligator taking stock.”
“We scared the ducks though. Pity we didn’t bring our guns and bag a few.”
“I believe we’ll have a right good breakfast at Findlayson’s,” said Craig; “so I propose we now have a mouthful of something and start.”
The gloom of that deep forest became irksome at last; though some of its trees were wondrous to behold in their stately straightness and immensity of size, the trunks of others were bent and crooked into such weird forms of contortion, that they positively looked uncanny.
Referring to these, Archie remarked to Craig, who was riding by his side:
“Are they not grotesquely beautiful?”