his hands in order to see better.

"There's somebody over on the bank beyond, and as near as I can make
out it's an old woman," Max told them just at that point; "perhaps
she's guarding some of the stuff that was saved from the cabin when the
water came up around it; while her man has gone to get a horse and
wagon, or a boat."

"Well, we're going to land here," Bandy-legs ventured; "and it won't be
hard to go up and interview the old lady. P'raps we can make a bargain
with her for some of her grub. I've got a dollar along with me, and I
reckon some of the rest ought to make as good a showing."

"There'll be no trouble about that part of it, if only the food is
around," Max assured them. "If the worst comes we'll have to
commandeer the food market, and settle afterwards. Can you make it all
right, Shack?"

"Easy as fallin' off a log," replied the stout boy, who was still
wielding the sculling oar back and forth with that peculiar turning
motion that presented the broad surface of the blade to the water all
the time, and induced the boat to move forward with a steady action.

He made his words good a few minutes later, for the stem of the boat
ran gently up against the bank, where a log offered a good chance for
disembarking.

No one would want a better landing stage; and so the three girls
managed to go ashore without wetting their feet any more than they had
been before.

Every one seemed glad to get on solid ground again. Even Max secretly
admitted that it did feel very good to know he had no longer to depend
on the whims of the current, but could go wherever he willed.

"Let's hunt out a decent place to make a camp," he remarked, "and then
after we get the shelter started, and the cheery fire warming things
up, two of us ought to wander off up the bank and see what's doing
around that house."

"I'll go with yon, Max," said Bandy-legs hastily, as though more or
less afraid that he might come in a poor second, as it was a case of
"first come, first served."

They drew the boat well up, and fastened it with the length of rope
that served as a painter; the clothes-line Max thought to take along
with him, as there was a possibility they might need it before through
with this adventure.

Then they started through the woods, which just at this point happened
to be unusually dense, with great trees rearing their crests a hundred
feet or so above the heads of the shipwrecked Crusoes.

It was not long befo