George looked on in wonder.
“Did I understand you to say that you are going back to the academy to-night?” said he.
“You did,” assured Bob, panting from his exertions. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t wonder that you had to hire a team to bring you up here,” continued George. “You had your canoe provisioned for a four-weeks’ cruise.”
“That shows how much you know about an academy boy’s appetite,” said Dick. “Whenever we go into the country for a holiday, we always make our entertainers open their eyes. Find anything more, Bob? Well, then, shove off. We’ll stop at the cabin long enough to unload our cargo and give our poles a good rubbing, and then, perhaps, George will be kind enough to show us where we can catch a good string of bass. We don’t want to go back to the academy empty-handed, you know; for if we do the fellows will laugh at us.”
George’s guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves that day.
Having caught a pailful of minnows for them, George rowed them down to his favorite fishing-grounds, and by the time the fish stopped biting they had sixteen black bass to show to the academy boys as trophies of their skill.
George offered to increase the size of their string by adding to it the fish he had caught himself—being an expert angler, he had caught an even dozen while the others were catching sixteen—but Dick and Bob would not listen to it. When they exhibited their fish they wanted to be able to say that they had caught them all themselves, and they couldn’t say that if they accepted any help from George.
The dinner that was served up in the cabin that afternoon was the best that George had eaten for many a day, and he disposed of his full share of it.
When they had satisfied their appetites, Dick and Bob began to get ready to start for home.