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Though they may not have owned a motorboat, or even a skiff, they had sturdy arms and active brains, and would surely find some way to serve those who just then seemed to be in great need of assistance. "Hi! here's more trouble!" cried Bandy-legs, while they were approaching the inundated farmhouse, borne on the sweeping current of the flood.
"Perhaps. But that won't be for long, let me tell you. I'm bound to show you everything I know about these things, and pick up more myself in the bargain. Did you get the boats hidden away all right, Bandy-legs?" "Gilt-edge, I give you my word. And we tied some of the reeds together near the spot. Only a feller who was lookin' for the tag'd notice where we did it.
Imagine the delight of such fellows as Max, Bandy-legs, Steve and Toby Jucklin, all of whom loved life in the open so much, when they got the chance to further indulge this propensity, especially at the most glorious time of the whole year, when the nut crop was coming on, the trees turning red and yellow from the magical touch of Jack Frost's cold fingers, with a tang in the air that made a fellow twice as hungry as he ever got in the hot old summer-time.
Bessie even clapped her hands when Bandy-legs after a series of contortions that would have done credit to a professional athlete, managed to crawl over the edge, assisted by a hand given him, not from Max, nor yet Steve, but the despised Shack Beggs, who seemed to have had no difficulty whatever in making the landing, for he was a muscular fellow, and as wiry as a cat.
Why, even Bandy-legs tried to forget all the dreadful nights ahead of them still, six in a row, and find some source of amusement. Each fellow seemed, as the afternoon glided along, to just naturally gravitate toward the kind of pleasure that interested him most.
"Got your tree all picked out, have you, Bandy-legs?" he would remark in his bantering way. "Be sure and tie your canoe to the lower limb, so it'll stay by you. And feel a little pity, won't you, please, for the other poor fellers who go ridin' down the raging flood, hangin' on to the bottom of their boats? Oh, it's a wise guy you show yourself, old boy. They don't ketch you asleep, do they?
It apparently pleased Shack considerably to have Max notice that he had his finger bound up in part of a much soiled handkerchief. And by now even Bandy-legs seemed to have accepted the other as a companion in arms, whom the fortunes of war had thrown into their society. Max took a look around before finally lying down.
The woods boy could look very sober at times, though, as a rule, there was that merry gleam in his eye that told how much he loved a joke. Altogether they had a delightful meal, and what was even better, there was an abundance to give every one three bountiful helpings, which fact pleased Bandy-legs and Steve in particular.
"And we must keep mum about it till you play your hand; is that it?" asked the wondering and awestruck Bandy-legs, at the conclusion of the recital. "Try and forget all about it, and act just the same as usual toward Steve," said Max. The other agreed to do his best. "But, Max," he added, "I'm awful sore over it.
"Hear! hear!" broke out Bandy-legs, clapping his hands as if to encourage the speaker. "And we know how to s-s-stand up f-for 'em," wound up Toby, shutting his teeth hard on the last word, and looking very determined. "You bet we will," remarked Steve. "I'd just like to see anybody have the nerve to try and steal that bully little gem we've captured first pop.
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