“Be sure to get it up under your arms, Buster,” warned Jack, while he worked.
“Yes,” added Josh, who could be sarcastic even when confronted by such danger, “for if the old thing slips down any it’ll keep your feet out, and your head under water. Better put two more on you, Buster, because you’re a heavyweight, you know.”
Perhaps Josh was joking when he said this, but Buster took it all solemnly enough.
“Guess I will, if the rest of you don’t need ’em!” he declared. “If you’re done fixin’ yours Josh, please lend me a hand. I don’t seem able to get the fastening the right way. Oh! we nearly went over that time, didn’t we?”
“Keep still, Buster, and quit trying to balance the boat!” urged George; “your weight won’t matter a bean if she’s bound to turn turtle; and you nearly smashed my foot that time, you came down on it so hard. Talk to me about a sportive elephant, it isn’t in the same class with you when you get excited.”
“Here, I’ll try and fix you up, Buster, if only you keep quiet a spell,” Josh told him, and between the two mentors Buster resolved to bear up and show a brave front.
Jack was peeping out as if hoping to see some sign of the storm breaking. The boat meanwhile was wallowing dreadfully, showing that by degrees she must be turning sideways to the waves and the wind, the latter still blowing “great guns.”
A vivid flash came just when Jack had the tarpaulin drawn aside, and made Buster give a loud cry.
“Oh, what a scorcher!” he exclaimed; “I thought I was struck at first.”
The speedy crash that followed drowned the rest of his words.