ham
isn't good to eat if it isn't cooked."

"And that's the meanest old hen that ever lived!" returned Crusoe. "She
hasn't laid an egg since I got her."

A distant rumble sounded in the air. "What's that?" asked Chips.

"Well, I should think you'd know that's thunder," replied Johnnie crossly.

"Oh, yes," said little Chips meekly, "and we're going to get wet."

They were both quiet for another minute, while the wind rose and swept by
them.

"I really think, Johnnie," began Chips apologetically, "that I'm not big
enough to be a good Man Friday. I think to-morrow you'd better find
somebody else."

"No, indeed," replied Johnnie feelingly. "I'd rather give up being wrecked
than go off with any one but you. If you give up, I shall."

The rain began to patter down.

"If you don't like to get wet, Chips, I'd just as lieves go and ring the
bell as not," he added.

A sudden sweep of wind nearly tipped the children over, for they had risen,
undecidedly.

"No," called Chips stoutly, to be heard above the blast. "I'll be Friday
till to-morrow." His last word sounded like a shout, for the wind suddenly
died.

"What do you scream so for?" asked Johnnie impatiently; but the storm had
only paused, as it were to get ready, and now approached swiftly, gathering
strength as it came. It swept across the piazza, taking the children's
breath away and bending the tall maple in front of the house with such
sudden fury that a branch snapped off; then the wind died in the distance
with a rushing sound and the breaking tree was illumined by a flash of
lightning.

"I think, Johnnie," said Chips unsteadily, "that God wants us to go in the
house."

A peal of thunder roared. "I've just thought," replied Johnnie, keeping his
balance by clutching the younger boy as tightly as Chips was clinging to
him, "that perhaps it wasn't right for us to run off the way we did,
without getting any advice."

They strove with the wind only a few seconds more, then, with one accord,
struggled to the door where one rang peal after peal at the bell, while the
other pounded sturdily.

Johnnie didn't stop then to wonder how his father could get downstairs to
open the door so quickly. Mrs. Ford, too, seemed to have been waiting for
the pair of heroes, and she took them straight to Johnnie's room, where she
undressed them in silence and rolled them into bed. They said their prayers
and were asleep in two minutes, while the storm howled outside. Then, i