That was the first time in a good many years that the creek had backed up into the marsh. Always that creek flows into the river. But the river was so full that it made the creek back up, and I should worry about all that business, because this is vacation and I’m not thinking about geography. If the creek wanted to back up it’s none of my business. That’s between the creek and the river and the uncivil engineers, and I wouldn’t trouble my young life about it. But, anyway, once a long time ago when a creek ran through that marsh there were some scows there. Some people called them barges. Anyway, they were canal boats. They used four of those to lay the tracks across when they ran the line up to town. The other three were pretty rotten, but the one that was made out of cedar was all right. The marsh kept the seams tight. As long as the hull was tight nothing could keep it down when the water rose. It would take more than those old rusty tracks to press it under water. Lucky for us our car was right on it. Afterwards they found that the other three barges had water in them up to the level of the water outside, and when the water rose it flowed right into them and they stayed on the bottom. That shows what cedar is. So you see we got our car out of the marsh all right and when something goes wrong it’s better not to begin grouching till the next day—that’s what I say. Wait a couple of days, that’s better. Even if you wait a year it won’t do any harm. [Illustration: SOME MEN THREW US A ROPE AND PULLED US ASHORE.] It was a dandy bright morning and the tide was just about full. We went drifting around the bend, just as nice as could be, flopping around this way and that, and I guess we must have looked pretty funny from the shore. Anyway, nobody saw us till we got to the Court House grounds. The Court House lawn runs right down to the river, and there are trees there and benches. The county jail is there, too, and the prisoners can see the river—a lot of good it does them. I’m glad I’m not a convict, that’s one thing. But, gee whiz, I came near to being one. The only reason I’m not one is because I didn’t commit a crime. Now as we passed by there, who should we see sprawling under a tree near the shore but the five deserters from my patrol, Dorry Benton, Bad Manners, Charlie Seabury and the Warner twins. I said, “Look at those five deserters, will you?” The inventor wanted to know what a deserter was. “It’s a fellow that eats two helpings of dessert,” I told him. “Give them a call,” Westy said; “they don’t see us.” We all started shouting together, and then they looked up. _Good night!_ “What do you call that?” one of them yelled. “Look what’s going by, will you!” I shouted, “Good morning, it’s a beautiful afternoon this evening, isn’t it? Have you done your good turns yet?” They all jumped up and stood on the shore, staring. “What in the dickens——” one of them began. “Will you look at that!” another one said.