“Whoever’s Chief at the time we go,” replied Uncle Teddy.
“That will be you, because you’re Chief this week,” said Sahwah.
“But Aunt Clara is Chief, too,” protested Katherine.
“Then there will be a Mr. and Mrs. Jason,” said Sahwah promptly. “And all the rest of us will be Argonauts.”
“I protest,” said Uncle Teddy, with a twinkle in 48 his eye. “If there’s a Mrs. Jason on board Jason himself won’t have a word to say about the expedition. He’ll be nothing but a figurehead. He’ll be the original Argo-nought!”
“You forget that the figurehead was the most important part of the ship in the eyes of the Greeks,” said Aunt Clara sweetly.
“If we don’t hurry and get started,” said Mr. Evans sagely, “that moose will be nowhere to be found. If you are going to argue as long over every detail of the hunt as you have about this much of it, the moose will have time to get clear over the Arctic Circle before we ever land on the other shore. I move we call ourselves the Argue-nots and go over this afternoon without delay. This weather is too fine to be wasted on dry land.”
Accordingly, right after dinner, the second great Argonautic Expedition put out to sea. Mrs. Evans, who had a headache, offered to stay at home and keep Sandhelo company and watch the island.
The space under the seats of the Argo II, as she was temporarily re-christened, was stowed full of “supper makin’s,” for they planned to stay until after nightfall.
It was not hard to imagine themselves engaged in one of the romantic quests of olden times, for the great war canoe with her rows of paddlers, speeding through the wide open water, was a sight to set the blood dancing in the veins and thrill the 49 imagination. The forest on the northern shore seemed to spread out wider and wider as they approached it, and grew wilder and more dark looking. To their cityfied eyes the dense growth of underbrush between the trees was the wilderness itself. Somewhere in the back of every man’s brain there slumbers the instinct of the explorer, a legacy from his far off ancestors who boldly set out to discover the unknown places of the earth, and even the modern boy and girl thrill with delight at the prospect of entering some new, wild region.