"B-b-boys," replied Put, "if you w-w-want to know how a b-b-bear feels on an iceberg, just try one of those other c-c-cakes."
He started on what was as near a run as it was to a dance, but it was plain he had received no worse harm than a wetting, and that crowd of boys was by no means satisfied.
"Look how the ice is packed in the cove," said Bill Thatcher, "and the pieces are big ones too."
"They wouldn't hold a fellow up."
"Yes, they would."
"See how Put's chunk carried him until he danced through it."
"Boys," said Jerry, "don't you know? There's seven times as much of a chunk of ice under the water as there is above it? Maybe it's eight times."
"Well," replied Mum Robbins, "if you should try to cross the cove on that pack of cakes, there'd be seven times as much of you in the water as there would be anywhere else."
"Now I guess not. If a fellow ran fast enough, and if he didn't stop two seconds on any one cake, he could get across."
"S'posing he should slip up?"