"I know, but seven or eight——"
"Will you please not mention the word ate?" said Townsend. "They ought to be thankful he left the lawn."
"What did his father say over the 'phone?" one asked.
"Oh, he didn't seem to worry," said Townsend. "He knows that the island is on a scow and that the river is small and that his son always lands right side up; that's what he said. I told him the island would come up with the tide and that we'd wait here and row out when he came in sight. He said there was no danger, that the discoverer is always lucky."
"Oh, he's lucky," said Brownie.
"Nothing short of an earthquake can capsize the island," Townsend said.
"He's a whole earthquake in himself," said Billy.
"More than that," said Shorty. "If I owned a restaurant I wouldn't leave it around, not unless there were buildings on both sides of it."
"And a weight on the top," said Brownie.
"Oh, that goes without saying," said Shorty.