“See how reckless those kids are!” exclaimed Amy suddenly. “They will have that canoe over.”
She referred to the Dogtown children. Jessie had been watching Charlie Foley and Montmorency Shannon paddling. Now she urged:
“Can’t we keep near them until they get to the Dogtown landing, Darry? If they should be swamped!”
“Never do to let little Hen drown,” agreed Darry, chuckling. “She is some kid, I’ll say! Maybe we would better tow them to Dogtown.”
But the smaller boys would not hear to that when it was suggested. Henrietta declared:
“If they tip us over, or anything like that, Mrs. Foley will fix ’em, Miss Jessie. She told Charlie to look out for us when we started. And, then, Spotted Snake, the witch, will bring ’em bad luck if the boys don’t behave good,” and she laughed eerily.
Nevertheless, because of Jessie’s insistence, the launch followed behind the canoe until the landing was in sight. Therefore the quartette of friends from Roselawn became separated from the other boats headed in the direction of Bonwit Boulevard.
“O-oo!” cried Amy suddenly. “It’s getting dark.” Then she began to sing the old song about being “Afraid to go Home in the Dark” and Burd came in with what Darry called a shaky second part.
“Nothing out here will ever trouble us with you two singing that way,” he observed. “You’d scare the loons.”
“Better light your lantern, Darry, hadn’t you?” Amy broke off to ask.