"Boys," wailed the unhappy geologist, "can't you do something, anything? I can't roost in this tree all night, like a bird."
The boys couldn't help grinning at this. With his sharp nose, big spectacles and flapping black garments, the professor did look like a mammoth black crow.
"Reminds me of the fox and the crow," said Dick, in a low voice, to his companions.
"Only, in this case, the fox is a bull, and the piece of cheese is the bag of specimens," added Tom.
They looked about helplessly. There was no farmhouse in sight and the road did not appear to be much traveled.
"We'll have to go for help," declared Jack.
"The only thing to do," agreed Tom.
The professor was hailed. He had climbed to another limb with infinite difficulty, because of the encumbering bag of rocks on his back. He declared that he could manage to get along till the boys came back.
"By a merciful provision of providence," he said whimsically, "bulls can't climb trees. The situation might be worse if it was a bear."
"It would be unbearable," declared Dick to Tom.