“Oh, well, move we make it unanimous then,” snapped George, which proved that, after all, his objections could only have been skin-deep, and were offered more in a spirit of contrariness than seriously.
“Here are letters for every one,” remarked Jack; “but if you take my advice you’ll keep them until after we’ve had supper. There’s a whole lot to be done before night settles down.”
“Jack, you’ve been ashore, and mebbe now you happened to notice a good grocery store where we could pick up what we need in the line of grub,” and as he asked this Buster waved his formidable list before him.
“It happens that I did just that same thing, and, better still, the place is only a short distance away from here. From the glance I took at it I reckon we could get about everything we want, provided we’re willing to take them in the Hungarian style of putting up the packages.”
“Oh,” decided Buster, “so far as that goes, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. I’d be willing to forget the trade names of the oatmeal, hominy, and such things I’m used to seeing, if the contents of the packages turned out to be as good.”
“All right, Buster,” continued the other, “suppose we start out right away and do our shopping. I suppose if we buy for cash they’ll send the things around here to this boat builder’s wharf where we had permission to tie up during our stay here.”
Everybody looked pleased. It was as if a dreadful load had been suddenly lifted from their hearts. They would never have been fully satisfied to abandon their trip down the Danube on such short notice. In times to come they would very likely call themselves silly to be frightened off so easily by what might turn out to be only a shadow of coming trouble.
Buster proved himself willing enough by scrambling ashore. In fact, when the question of eating was concerned no one could ever accuse the fat boy of shirking his duty; as Josh said, “When the dinner horn blew Buster was always Johnny-on-the-spot,” though truth to tell the said Josh often ran a race with his comrade at table.
“I don’t suppose you’ll be needing a German scholar along with you to do the bargaining?” suggested George pompously.