Rube leant over and searched the depths.
"Not much," he answered. "I c'n see the bottom, sure—stones, gravel, swayin' weeds. Hold hard, though. Them stones didn't grow there. Guess they're too reg'lar. I c'n make out a ring of 'em."
"Yes," said Kiddie. "So c'n I. Some queer that they should be arranged in a circle that way, ain't it? Are you able t' figure it out?"
Rube pondered deeply, frequently looking down at the stones so precisely placed in a ring at the bottom of the lake.
"They sure never come there on their own account, like the tree," he decided. "Looks as if human hands had put em' that way, an' I've got a idea, Kiddie. It's just this. Centuries an' centuries ago, this yer lake wasn't a lake at all, but dry land."
"Well?" Kiddie smiled. "That's possible."
"And," continued Rube, "when it was dry land, a tribe of what you call prehistoric men lived here. They was pagans—sun worshippers, an' such. They built the stones in a circle as a kinder temple, same's them chaps you told me of that built Stonehenge. What? Ain't that a cute idea of mine?"
"I allow th' idea's cute," conceded Kiddie. "But it ain't an explanation. It's too far-fetched altogether, an' it contradicts the theory that there were no inhabitants in these wildernesses all that time ago. If you'd thought a bit longer, you might have hit upon the true an' very commonplace explanation. Y'see, the stones haven't even been in the lake long enough to get a growth of weeds and moss on 'em. As a matter of fact, they've been there only a very few winters—since the time when the name 'Kiddie' was more appropriate to me than it is now. There was a big frost; the lake was frozen over. I'd the boyish idea that it 'ld be int'restin' t' build a house on the ice. There was no snow; stones were handier 'n timber. I carted the stones here on my sled. I built 'em in a circle. Snow came, an' I finished the buildin' with snow. You c'n sure guess the rest."
"Yes, course I can," said Rube. "When the snow an' ice melted, the stones sank straight down, an' fell to the bottom in a ring. What did I say just now, Kiddie? Thar ain't no trippin' you up or catchin' you nappin'."
"I dunno if you're aware of it, Rube," resumed Kiddie, "but for the past two or three minutes I've had the corner of my eye on a canoe that's comin' this way down the lake. Who's at the paddle? 'Tain't Gideon's way of paddlin'. 'Tain't Abe Harum. Who d'ye reckon it c'n be?"