Fortune favored them again; but then possibly the presence of that sweet singing little rivulet that meandered through the forest may have had something to do with Jack’s decision to stop for lunch; he was always seeing these small but very important things, as Steve very well knew.
They found a mossy bank and sat down, Steve with a great sigh of contentment; but whether this was caused by the fact that his lame foot was hurting him a bit again, or just from plain delight over the arrival of “feeding time,” it would be hard to say; nor, indeed, fair to big Steve, who 60 might have his weaknesses, but on the whole was a real good fellow.
Here the pair sat and ate and drank of the cold water until they had fully satisfied the inner man. After all, Steve was compelled to wrap up part of his lunch again, being utterly unable to devour it.
“Huh! guess that time my eyes were bigger ’n my stomach,” he grunted, being too full for much speaking; “but, then, never mind, we are quite a ways from camp, and I often take a little bite around three in the afternoon, even when I’m home. So it isn’t going to be wasted, believe me.”
“Only waisted,” laughingly said Jack, and then apologized for getting off such an atrocious pun.
They decided to lie around for an hour, and then push on a little farther before turning back. That Jack figured would bring them to the camp by the triangle oaks an hour or so before darkness came on, which was time enough.
It was very pleasant for Steve, lying there on his back, and feeling the gentle breeze fan his heated face; for around about noon the sun’s rays began to grow pretty fervid, and Steve often mopped his perspiring and beaming face, though taking it good naturedly.
Both of them shut their eyes and rested, though not meaning to even take what Steve was pleased to call a “cat nap.” It was peculiarly still just at that hour after the middle of the day. The little woods animals must all be sleeping in their burrows, 61 or the hollow trees where they had their nests. Even the inquisitive squirrels were only noticeable by their absence. A scolding bevy of crows alighted in a tree some distance off, and kept up what Steve called facetiously a “crow caucus.”
The time Jack meant to remain there resting, had almost expired when both of the boys suddenly sat up, and held their heads in a listening attitude.