"Nonsense! Come, here's your valise gaping at you."
"I'm not going, Carver."
"Fiddlesticks! you are too. There's the foot-ball and your fishing-tackle. I'll get your things together for you."
"No. I tell you I shan't go. I've let this thing go on far enough. I absolutely haven't courage to go with the rest of the crowd to that island, where I can't get away, if I feel ever so much like running."
"The supply of courage has given out, has it?" asked Ben laughing. "There has been a pretty heavy drain on it, I will admit."
"Yes, it has given out," and Ralph laughed in spite of his melancholy.
"That's bad; but come, old fellow, you'll feel better after we get off."
"And leave Joe Chester behind?"
Ralph got off the chair that he had been torturing, and, putting his hands deep in his pockets, paced to and fro.
"No, Ben; I'm a pretty mean lot, but I declare it's getting beyond my depth. The next thing I shall go all under."