ve. Did it, Big?"

"If you say it didn't, Big, I'll give you a crack right in the eye,"
cried Bob fiercely, as he doubled his fist.

Bigley's mouth was opened to speak, but Bob was so energetic and fierce
that it remained like a round O, and the great fellow looked so comical
that I burst out into a fit of laughter which set Bob laughing too, and
this made Big stare at us both in a puzzled way; but by degrees he
caught the mood of the moment and laughed too, and the cloud that
overhung our expedition drifted away.

"Well," said Bob at last in a disappointed tone, "I s'pose we may as
well go down on the beach crabbing, for we can't move that stone."

"I know how we could move it," cried Bigley suddenly.

"Tchah! How?" I said.

"Same as my father moved the great rock out there in the cove. There
was a big lump there that was always dangerous for the lugger when she
was coming in."

"Well, what then?" said Bob contemptuously.

"Why," continued Big eagerly, "he waited till the spring tides and the
water was terribly low, and then he put a lot of gunpowder in a hole
under it and laid a train, and smeared a piece of rag with powder, and
nicked the flint and steel till the rag caught fire, and then he ran
away."

"Well?" I said.

"Well, then the rag sparked and spit fire till the train began to run,
and then the train set light to the powder, and there was a big _bom
boom_."

"A big what?" we both cried.

"A big _bom boom_," said Bigley.

"Why, you didn't say anything about a big _bom boom_ being there
before," cried Bob. "I don't believe there is such a thing."

"Now, how you do go on!" cried Bigley. "You know what I mean--a big
bang when the powder went off."

"Then why don't you call things by their right name?" said Bob. "A
bang's a bang and nothing else."

"Well, the powder went bang and knocked the big rock right off the place
where it stood."

"What! Up in the air?" I said.

"Up in the air? No; over into the deep water, where it sank to the
bottom."

"Well, you don't suppose we're such old stupids as to think it floated,
do you?" cried Bob.

"No, of course not, but that's what it did."

"I don't believe it," said Bob stubbornly.

"You don't believe it?" I said, while poor Bigley stood staring at the
last speaker.

"No. If that had been true old Big would have been bouncing about it at
school, and told us that story, as he always does everything he knows,
nine hundred thousan