It was shortly after Mr. Hanks’ disconcerting assumption of the rÔle of despot that Jeffrey crossed the hall to Gil and Poke’s room one Friday evening.

“Are you fellows still grinding?” he asked.

“We are still studying,” responded Poke. “Please try to abstain from slang, Mr. Latham. I don’t care so much about myself, but it sets a bad example for my friend across the table. I have to be very careful about him. His parents have placed him in my charge, you see. Well, what’s on your mind, old top?”

“I’ve been thinking,” said Jeffrey gravely.

“I know.” Poke nodded sympathetically. “It does make you feel sort of queer, doesn’t it? Have a glass of water?”

“That might give him water on the brain,” observed Gil, looking up from his book.

Poke observed him sorrowfully. “Your humor, Gil, is heavy, very heavy. Go on with your Latin, my poor fellow.”

“How the dickens can I, when you two chaps are talking?” asked Gil mildly, pushing his book away.

“I thought you’d be through,” said Jeffrey. “I’ll come in again later.”

“Sit still, Jeff. I am through. I was just taking a fall out of Monday’s stuff. Where’s Jim?”

“Over there; studying math.” Jeffrey indicated his room with a jerk of his head. “I’ve been thinking—”

“You said that before,” interrupted Poke sweetly.

“Shut up, Poke! Let him think if he wants to. Just because you never do it—”

“Let him tell it, Gil, can’t you? Always interrupting and annoying folks with your beastly chatter. Go ahead, Jeff; don’t mind him; you’ve been thinking; now what’s the rest? Bet you I know the answer!”

Jeff aimed a blow at Poke’s shins with the end of a crutch and Poke kicked his feet up just in time. “He’s getting crutchity, Gil,” he said sadly.

Gil threatened him with a book from the table and Poke retired to the other side of the room.

“You see,” said Jeff, taking advantage of Poke’s retreat to state his errand, “you see, fellows, I’ve been thinking—”

There was a chuckle from the window seat which turned quickly into a cough as Gil swung around in that direction, the book still in his hand. Jeffrey smiled.

“Thinking,” he went on, “about getting a canoe.”

“Gee, but I’m glad you aren’t thinking about getting a steam yacht!” ejaculated Poke. “You’d have brain fever by this time!”

“They say there’s a man named Sandford up the river who makes corkers.”

“There is; at Riverbend. There are two or three up there who make canoes,” replied Gil.

“Well, I’ve always heard that Sandford’s were the best. I think—”

“He’s at it again!” groaned Poke, who had fortified himself with half a dozen cushions. “He’s at it again!”

“I think I’ll buy one. Oughtn’t I get a pretty good one for thirty dollars, Gil?”

“I really don’t know, Jeff. Never bought a canoe in my life. I would think so, though. How about it, Poke?”

“Oh, am I to be allowed to speak?” asked Poke in a muffled voice from behind his breastworks. “Had to come to old Poke when you wanted to know something, didn’t you?”

“Oh, shut up, you idiot!” laughed Gil. “How much do canoes cost?”

Poke emerged in a shower of cushions. “Canoes?” he asked. “Well now, what kind of canoes? There are canvas canoes, wooden canoes, paper canoes, birch-bark canoes, steel canoes, dug-outs—”

“Dug-outs, of course,” replied Gil sarcastically. “Those are what Sandford makes, I suppose?”

“Irony doesn’t become you,” responded Poke critically. “Irony, Gil, should be indulged in only by those having an iron constitution. Returning to the subject of canoes and the cost thereof—”

“Thirty dollars will probably buy you a first-class one, Jeff,” Gil interrupted. “When are you going to—”

“Thirty dollars will buy a very fair one only,” Poke corrected. “Allow me, if you please, to speak on this subject. I suppose there is no one in Crofton who has more knowledge of canoes than I, Jeff. Canoes are—are an open book to me. I can tell you where to buy them, how to buy them, when to buy them—and when not to! Also, I have full knowledge of what to feed them and how to bring them up. I suppose I’ve brought up more canoes—”

“Honestly, Poke, you’re silly,” said Gil disgustedly. “We’re talking seriously, so shut up or get out, will you?”

“I can be just as serious as you can, you old Mr. Grouch!” Poke returned to his chair at the table, wearing an expression of intense dignity. “Sandford’s eighteen-foot canoe, Jeff, costs forty-two dollars, but you can get a dandy sixteen-footer for thirty-five. It isn’t finished quite as nicely, I believe. Sometimes you can pick up a good second-hand one up there. Perky Wright has one he only paid about fifteen for. I don’t think it came from Sandford, though. What’s that other fellow’s name up there, Gil?”

“I don’t know. There are two or three others, aren’t there? Was Perky’s second-hand when he got it, Poke?”

“Yes, and he had the fellow paint it all up as good as new. You’d never have known it had been used before he got it, Jeff.”

“I think I’d rather have a brand-new one,” said Jeff doubtfully. “And I wouldn’t want an eighteen-footer; sixteen is long enough. Couldn’t you fellows go up there with me in the morning and help me buy it?”

“I guess so,” Gil answered. “We’d have to go early, though; dinner’s at twelve to-morrow on account of the game.”

“We can go up on the train,” said Poke. “Take the eight-something and be there in five minutes.”

“I thought we might paddle up,” suggested Jeff. “It wouldn’t take very long.”

“Hm, and who would do the paddling?” asked Poke with elaborate carelessness.

“I’d do most of it,” Jeffrey replied, “if some one would take a hand in the bow.”

“That’s Gil, then. He’s tried it and I never have. How many can we get in a canoe? Is Jim going along?”

“No, he says he can’t. But I thought we might take Hope if she’d like to go.”

“Four of us in one frail bark?” demurred Poke.

“Of course; easy as pie.”

“I’ve seen six fellows in some of our canoes here,” said Gil. “But I’m afraid you and I’ll be a bit tired by the time we reach Riverbend, Jeff. However, we can come back with the current.”

“Gee,” exclaimed Poke, “I wish we didn’t have a game to-morrow. We could take some grub with us and have a picnic.”

“Fine! Couldn’t we do it anyway?” Jeff asked eagerly.

“Why not, Poke? Johnny will let us off,” said Gil. “We’ll get Lady to put us up a nice big basket of grub and we’ll find a place along the river and have a fine old time! Why can’t Jim come along?”

“He says he has to attend to some things around the house in the morning,” answered Jeff.

“Shucks! Where is he? I’ll attend to him!” And Poke disappeared across the hall.

“We’ll have to make sure and be back by one-thirty,” said Gil. “Game’s at two-thirty to-morrow, you know. We’ll put on our old things so we can fall overboard if we want to. By the way, Jeff, what would happen to you if the old thing did upset?”

“I’d swim ashore, I hope,” laughed Jeff.

“Really? Can you swim with—with those?” Gil was looking at the crutches.

“No, I usually leave these behind when I go in swimming,” replied Jeffrey with a smile. “Swim is one thing I can do fairly well, Gil. Funny, though, isn’t it? I suppose I do most of it with my good leg, although I seem to get some push with the other, too. If we upset, you look after yourself; don’t worry about me; I dare say I’d be ashore as soon as you.”

“Here he is!” cried Poke in the doorway. He had Jim by the coat collar. “Now apologize to Mr. Latham for so rudely refusing his kind invitation!”

“I apologize,” laughed Jim.

“Then you’ll go with us?” cried Jeffrey.

Jim hesitated. “I oughtn’t to,” he began.

“Oh, feathers!” said Poke, giving him a shake. “Of course you’ll come. What have you got to do here, I’d like to know?”

“Lots of things; lay a carpet, for one.”

“Lay it after you get back,” suggested Jeffrey.

“I want to see the game, thank you. Maybe, though, I can do it to-morrow evening.”

“Of course you can; carpets lay better in the evening, anyhow.” And Poke released his prisoner.

“Will Hope come along?” asked Jeffrey.

“I guess so,” Jim replied. “Want me to find out?”

“Yes, and say, Jim, while you’re about it see if Lady will get up some sandwiches and things for us, will you?”

“Of course she will.” Jim went out to seek his mother and sister, and Poke began to chuckle.

“What are you crying about?” asked Gil.

“Oh, nothing much, thank you. I was just wondering which of us, if Hope comes, is to swim. For I’ll be switched if I want to go five in a canoe.”

“That’s so,” said Jeff. “I hadn’t thought of that. Couldn’t we take two canoes, Gil?”

“If we can get them, but some one will have to get to the boat-house pretty early or they’ll be taken; that is, if it’s a decent day. And who will paddle the second one?”

“Jim,” replied Jeffrey. “He can paddle very well now. I’ve been showing him how.”

“And who will take the bow paddle?” asked Poke uneasily.

“You, you lazy dub,” responded Gil promptly. “If you can’t paddle a canoe it’s time you learned how. You and Jeff can go in one canoe, with Hope, and Jim and I will take the other.”

“All right, but don’t blame me if something awful happens. I am subject to cramps, and if I have a cramp I can’t paddle, and if I can’t paddle we’ll upset, and if we upset—”

“You’ll get wet,” ended Jeffrey. “So I guess we’ll let you and Jim take care of the luncheon, Gil.”

“I won’t go if you’re going to put the luncheon in his care,” declared Poke. “Why, there wouldn’t be a smutch of it left by the time we got to Riverbend. I insist on staying close to the grub!”

“As close as you want, but in another boat, sweet youth,” replied Gil. “Here’s Jim. What did she say, Jim?”

“Which she? Lady says she will give us all the lunch we want and Hope says she would like to go very much indeed. To be quite exact, fellows, she said it would be ‘perfectly jimmy!’”