'I've no doubt they are. Now I haven't got any aunts at all that I know of, married or single. We'd better not tell these good ladies how nearly their nephew was at the bottom of the pond or we shall frighten them out of their wits, I'm afraid.'
'Oh, but I must,' said Godfrey, gravely, 'because they told me not to come, and I did, and Aunt Angel's going to whip me.'
'Ah, well, of course we must tell the truth then, and perhaps if I beg for you I might get her to let you off the whipping.'
Godfrey shook his head.
'Aunt Angel always does what she says,' he remarked.
'Well, she's quite right there,' said his new friend, though to himself he thought,
'Poor little chap, he's small for flogging. I wonder if the old lady's hand is heavy.'
Then he asked aloud,
'What made you come Arctic exploring if you knew the whipping was to follow?'
'I didn't like my sum,' confessed Godfrey, 'and I did want to be like those brave men.'