"Why, I pulled off my boots because they were wet and hurt my feet; then I lay down to wait for you, and went to sleep. I suppose the 'gator found it warm enough that day to come out of the mud, where he had been asleep all winter. Of course he felt hungry after such a long nap, and when he saw my bare foot thought it would make him a nice meal. I was waked by feeling myself dragged along the ground, and finding my foot in what felt like a vise. I caught hold of a tree, and held on until it seemed as though my arms would be pulled out. I yelled as loud as I could all the time, while the 'gator pulled. He twisted my foot until I thought the bones must be broken, and that I must let go. Then you came, Mark, and that's all I remember until I was in the canoe, and you were paddling up the river."
"Was that the first time you were ever in that canoe?" asked Mark, a new suspicion dawning in his mind.
"No; I had used her 'most every night, and one night I went as far as St. Mark's in her."
"What made you bring the canoe back at all?" asked Mrs. Elmer.
"'Cause everybody round here would have known her, and known that I had stole her if they'd seen me in her," answered the boy.
"And did you shoot poor Bruce?" asked Ruth.
"Who's Bruce?"
"Why, our dog. He came to us more than a week ago, shot so bad that he could hardly walk."
"Yes, I shot him because he wouldn't go into the water and fetch out a duck I had wounded; but his name is Jack. I didn't kill him though, for I saw him on your back porch last Sunday when you were all over the river, and he barked at me."
"My poor boy," said Mrs. Elmer, "you have certainly done very wrong; but you have been severely punished for it, and if you are truly sorry and mean to try and do right in the future, you will as certainly be forgiven." So saying, the kind-hearted woman went over and sat down beside the boy, and took his hand in hers.