“What’s the matter, Kid?”

“Nothing the matter with me. Goodness, I can speak, can’t I!”

“Well, what are you grouching about, then?”

“Who’s grouching?”

“You are; don’t you want to hunt up the troop?”

“Oh, certainly, if you care to.”

“We’d be a couple of gumps to go back home now.”

“Well, there’s more than one way of being a gump.”

“Refusing a boat, for instance? What do I want of a boat? I’ve got you along, Kid, and that’s all I care about. I’d rather have you than twenty boats. Come now, brace up, old man.”

“You didn’t have sense enough to be convinced by reason. That was a fine argument about the public library and the hospital.”