The boys bent to their work in earnest, and but few words were spoken while they sent the boat along, mile after mile, until they had gone some half dozen miles up the river.
"Phew!" exclaimed Pepper at length, "what is the matter with stopping here?"
"Tired?" asked Donald.
"Well, I feel as if I had been doing something," replied Pepper, resting on his oar.
"I suppose there isn't much choice in the matter," remarked Rand; "one place is probably as good as another."
"Only some of them are better," put in Jack.
"And this is one of them," asserted Pepper, "and there is a nice green place over there on the shore where we can put in and cook some fish for dinner."
"If we have any to cook," suggested Donald. "You know you have first to catch your fish before you can cook them."
"We'll do that, too, old Solomon the Second," returned Jack, who was in the bow. "That's what we came out for. Shall I let go the anchor, Rand?"
"All right, let it go," ordered Rand. "Easy now, if you don't want to scare all the fish away. What are you trying to do?" as Jack gave the anchor a swing and, failing to let go of the painter, promptly went overboard with it.