"Sure enough, so they are!"
"Hurrah!"--"Welcome to the castaways!" cried the crowd, leaping to their feet.
"Glad to see you, old fellows!" said Joe; "but you gave us an awful fright."
"We gave ourselves a greater, I'll be bound," said Walter frankly. "That was a mighty uncomfortable place we stumbled into."
"Yes, and we thought we'd seen the last of you fellows," added Ned, throwing himself down upon the rock, and pillowing his head on his locked arms as he lay on his back. "That's just as near as I want to come to Robinson Crusoe's experience. We were worse off than he was--he had plenty of room; and one time when the tide was highest we had the spray flying over our heads. My coat is wet now."
"Is it this week, or next, or the year 1900?" said Walt. "It seems ages since we dodged around behind that rock to see if we could frighten you."
"You won't feel complimented, I am afraid," said Joe laughing, "when I tell you we didn't miss you till noon. We were so busy fishing, we thought only of that, until some one went to cook fish; then we all got hungry and decided to have a lunch. When we got ready to eat we missed you."
"That was when we heard them shouting, Ned."
"Yes, I suppose so."
"Why didn't you answer?"