But again this reasonable request fell unheeded. He waited anxiously for a response, but none came.
"Where are you, you scoundrel?" he screamed, in very ill temper.
"Don't you wish you knew?" thought Sam, as he looked calmly down from a distance upon Ben.
"Perhaps the scamp has hid my clothes somewhere about here," thought Ben.
He proceeded to search in every direction he could think of. But the hollow tree, rather strangely, did not occur to him and escaped his notice.
His anger and dismay increased as he found his search vain.
"I wish I had the mean, contemptible rascal here!" he exclaimed. "I'd break every bone in his body!"
"I don't know about that, Ben Brayton," silently commented Sam, from his secure post of observation.
"What shall I do?" thought Ben, gloomily.