Four Afloat: Being the Adventures of the Big Four on the WaterBarbour, Ralph Henry
General
Four Afloat: Being the Adventures of the Big Four on the Water
Barbour, Ralph Henry
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction
“Mighty pretty, isn’t it?” asked Bob as he drew in his oars and got
ready to lay hold of the launch.
“Yes,” Tom answered without enthusiasm, “but I think it would be a heap
more comfortable to sleep on the boat where we have decent mattresses
than to lie on the ground.”
“Tommy, you’re a sybarite,” said Bob, as he climbed onto the launch.
“I don’t know what that is,” grumbled Tom as he followed, “but if it’s
something that likes a decent bed I’m it.”
They kept the fire going until bedtime and watched its flames leap and
writhe in the purple darkness. Then the moon came up and dimmed the
firelight and showed them the _Vagabond_ floating quietly at anchor a
little way off. Tom looked toward it longingly.
“Wish I was there,” he murmured. And, after a moment, “What’s a
sybilite, Dan?” he asked. Bob laughed.
“A ‘sybilite,’ Tommy,” he said, “is a person who’d rather sleep on a
launch than on the ground.”
“That’s me,” sighed Tom. “I thought, though, it was a fellow who told
fortunes, or something like that.”
“Oh, no,” said Dan, “that’s a gypsyite.”
“Hope you choke,” muttered Tom. “I’m going to bed, although I don’t
suppose I’ll be able to sleep any.”
“Only about twelve hours,” jeered Dan.
When they awoke in the morning it was to a gray, wet world. A fine mist
was falling, everything outside the improvised tent was sopping and the
other side of the river was shut from view.
“There’s no use trying to make a fire with this wood,” yawned Bob. “I
vote we go on board.”
Dan and Nelson agreed. Tom was silent, for after one disgusted look at
the outside world he had turned over and promptly gone to sleep again.
“Let’s leave him,” whispered Dan.
“But we need the awning,” Nelson demurred. Dan chuckled.
“Sure, and we’ll take it. He’ll never wake up.”
So very quietly they gathered the things together and bore them to the
landing. Two trips of the tender were sufficient, and on the second one
they took the awning. Back at the edge of the woods, with the mist
falling gently on his upturned face, slept Tom.
Barry seemed to appreciate the change of quarters as much as anyone and
was soon curled up in a corner of Bob’s bunk. The dampness had got into
their bones and all were stiff and full of queer little aches when they
stretched their muscles.
“What we need,” said Nelson, “is some hot coffee and lots of it.”
“And right away quick,” added Dan.
So Bob got busy at the stove while the others put the awning back over
the cockpit. While they were doing it they cast many amused glances
across at the shore where Tom still slumbered under his gray blanket.
“I tell you what,” said Dan presently. “Let’s go on down the river
around that point. Then when Tom wakes up he’ll think we’ve gone off
without him. What do you say?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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