"That's what one might call being buried alive," he answered. "Lucky it wasn't you! I'm tall and could keep my head out; but the mire would long since have closed over an abbreviated person like yourself and you would have been seen no more."
Bob winced. He was sensitive about his height.
Clambering up on the rock beside his chum Van scooped up a handful of clean snow and with it washed his hands and face.
"There!" he said at length. "I'm just as tidy as if it had not happened."
"I can't exactly agree with you," replied Bob, "but I guess you'll have to do. Come on now. Goodness only knows where David and the sledge have got to by this time."
They hurried up the hill.
"There's David!" Van said, as they reached the crest of the rise.
It was David sure enough; and standing beside him in his customary motionless attitude was the Admiral harnessed into a great sledge surmounted by a barrel into which David was pouring the sap as fast as he gathered it. At the moment the man was busy detaching one of the sap buckets from the trunk of a giant maple.
The boys joined him.
"What are you doing, Dave?" asked Van curiously.