siree.
But won't I get it when they hear all about me bein' in the water! Wish
you wouldn't tell on me. Pop'll just give me hot cakes for not mindin'
him. _Please_ don't tell. I'll promise never to get in this old boat
again, sure I will!"

Fred and Bristles exchanged glances.

"What do you say, Fred?" asked the latter; "ought we keep still about
it?"

Under ordinary circumstances Fred would have said that the parents of
the boy ought to know what chances he had been taking; but the
conditions were rather peculiar just then. If he told, it would seem as
if he might be trying to "draw the teeth" of his enemy, Buck Lemington,
by boasting how he had saved the latter's little brother, of whom the
bully was especially fond. And Fred's pride rose at the idea of his
being considered that sort of a fellow.

"Oh! I'm willing to keep mum about it, Bristles, if you are," he said,
slowly, after having duly considered the matter. "He promises never to
get in this cranky canoe again. For the life of me I can't see how he
ever paddled it all the way up here."

"I didn't," spoke up Billy, quickly. "Buck lent it to Bob Armstrong,
and last night I heard him say he thought it funny Bob didn't drop down
with his boat. So I just thought to-day I'd walk up to Bob's and if he
was around, tell him I'd come for our canoe."

"And Bob was silly enough to let you have it, eh?" asked Bristles,
indignantly.

Billy was rapidly recovering his nerve. He even made a wry face as he
went on to answer the question put to him.

"Why no. You see Bob, he wasn't around; so, because I didn't want to
have my long walk all for nothin', I just hunted up the paddle in his
woodshed, and started for our house. I'd a made it, too, if I hadn't
leaned too far over when a rock bumped into us, and the old thing just
pitched me out."

"Well," said Fred, laughingly, "suppose you jump around a little, and
dry off before you go home, Billy. And neither of us will let on what
happened. I'll get the canoe down to your house in some fashion, though
I hope Buck will be away this morning."

"He's gone off with some of the fellers to Grafton, to look at somethin'
they want to buy," the small chap continued; "and he won't be back till
noon. That's just why I thought I'd help get his boat down
the river. You see Bob's with him, I guess."

So after they had seen Billy scamper away, keeping in the warm sun so
as to get his clothes dried, and avoiding the road so that he