“Right—about the first part,” said Roy Pinger. “Just now, we’re showing these Thornton chaps the way home. They might stray off the river.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Lon Bates. “They keep close to us because they’re afraid of the dark. We feel so sorry for ’em.”
“How we wonder what’s the matter
When those children make a clatter!
Poor, poor Ripley.”
“Do you hear them tremble?” inquired Owen Andrews.
“Want to know how to get the best of them?” shouted Joe.
“We have a hundred rules for it, but you may add one more.”
“Stay up all night and bail out the river.”
“At last we have met some one who knows how to talk sense,” exclaimed Bill Stiles, amidst a ripple of laughter. “It’s me for the shore now, and a bit of sleep.”