‘N-no, but thinking about it sort of helps,’ murmured Tim. It got pretty warm on the river as the sun moved toward the zenith and both Pud and Tim began to look longingly at the occasional shady places they passed. Harmon lay flat on his back on the stern seat, one bare black arm across his eyes, utterly motionless, silent and contented. They chugged past Farquhar’s Landing with its half-dozen scattered houses and gazed back regretfully at the broad oaks that lined the single street. Ahead of them lay a long stretch of open stream, sun-smitten, its banks barren of shade. Pud consulted his silver watch and announced casually: ‘’Most quarter-past eleven. Guess we might as well stop at the next place that looks good, Tim. Won’t do to overheat the engine.’ ‘What about me getting overheated?’ grumbled Tim. ‘Anyway, there isn’t any place in sight, and by the time we get to one, I’ll be fried as hard as an egg.’ ‘I guess it isn’t any hotter for you than it is for me,’ said Pud. ‘Looks like there were trees down beyond that bend, don’t it?’ Tim agreed that it did sort of look that way, and a quarter of an hour later the _Kismet_ sidled up to the shore at the right where a straggling grove of trees had taken possession of one corner of a field. Although the launch drew only about eighteen inches, they couldn’t get her nose close enough to land dry-shod, and so Harmon waded ashore with the bowline and made it fast to the bole of a willow. Then he pushed a log out toward the launch and Tim got ashore on it without wetting more than one foot slightly. It was decided to be much too hot to do any cooking, so Pud selected a box of crackers, a can of potted ham, six bananas, and three bottles of lemon tonic from the larder and carefully tossed the articles one by one across the intervening space of mud and water to Tim. Everything got over safely except one of the bottles, and Harmon rescued that. Having turned off the gasoline at the tank according to instructions from Andy Tremble, Pud set out to join the others. Perhaps the current had slightly misplaced the log. Anyhow, Pud felt the water creeping about one ankle, gave a startled exclamation and advanced his other foot hurriedly with the result that he stepped on the side of the log and――Oh, well, what finally happened was that Pud sat squarely down in three inches of water!