"Then what do you come out here for?"
"For fun."
"Is there any fun in being drowned, Dick Short?" asked Paul seriously, as he glanced at Dory, whose face was as calm as the minister's on Sunday.
"Any fun in being drowned? How should I know? I never tried it," returned the coxswain.
"But don't you think it is dangerous to be out here in such a blow?" Paul insisted; and he really believed he was in peril.
"Of course it is."
"Then don't you think you had better put back into the river?"
"But it is dangerous in there," added Dick. "Suppose a tree should blow down and kill every fellow in the boat? Suppose the sea-serpent should be having a vacation up Beaver River, and take it into his head to swallow us all, one at a time? Suppose the river should catch fire and burn us all up? Suppose the sky should fall, as Chicken Little said it would, and smash us all to jelly?"
"You are making fun of me, Dick," said Paul, laughing.