“Hurrah for friendship!”
“Bully for you!”
“Go in and win!”
“We won’t do a thing to those raspberries!”
“Wait till you get them,” Ben called back, as he disappeared down the hill.
Whistling gaily, Ben swung along till he came to the spot he had noticed the afternoon before, where the raspberry bushes glowed red with the luscious fruit.
By the time he had filled one pail, the berries were getting more scarce, and he wandered on in search of the best filled bushes.
He did not notice that the ground was growing soft and springy under his feet. He only thought of getting that other pail filled and hiking back to camp in time for the cook to use the berries for those promised dumplings.
“Ah, there is the dandiest one yet!” he said to himself, as a bush fairly loaded with the red berries met his sight. He set down his pail and reached for the berries. At that moment a sensation came over him as if the ground were giving way beneath his feet, and without a moment’s warning he found himself ankle deep in soft, sticky mud.
Not in the least alarmed, he tried to spring to firmer ground, but instead sank deeper into the mud than before.