kind of a legal sandwich," said Townsend, sitting back against
the tree with his knees drawn up and talking with a calmness and
seriousness which aroused the wrath of old Trimmer. "It's a kind of an
interesting situation. We have as much right on the scow as the land
has, as I see it----"

"Sure, you learn that in the third grade!" shouted Pee-wee. "That's
logic."

"Really, the best thing to do," drawled Townsend, "would be to remove
the land, which would let us down onto the scow and that would let you
out of the difficulty. We'd be answerable to the owner of the scow."

"It belonged to the big dredge," Pee-wee said excitedly. "I knew all
the men on that dredge; I used to hang out on that dredge; those men
were all friends of mine. We wouldn't be trespassing except your land
is in the way."

"If you want us to shovel the land out of here we'll do it," suggested
Roly Poly.

"Then the tree'll fall over," said Brownie.

"Gee whiz," shouted Pee-wee, "it'll serve the tree right because all
the time fellers are being accused of trespassing in apple trees and
now you can see for yourself that apple trees are just as bad. They
trespass on scows."

"We could have this tree fined ten dollars," said Billy, "if we wanted
to report it to the dredging company in New York."

"Or it would have to go to jail for thirty days," yelled Pee-wee.

"I don't see what we're going to do, Mr. Trimmer," said Townsend.

"I know what we're going to do," said Pee-wee; "we're going to do a lot
of things. We're natives of this island."

"We don't recognize this land," said Townsend; "we consider it beneath
us."

"Sure it's beneath us!" shouted Pee-wee.

"It simply happens to trespass on the scow first," said Townsend. "I
think we'll stand on our rights."

"Well, yer ain't goin' ter stand on my property, yer ain't!" old
Trimmer bellowed, his wrath rising. Townsend's calmness seemed to goad
him to a perfect frenzy.

"Well, then," said Townsend, "the only thing for us to do is to shovel
out a space and camp on that. Then our feet will be on the scow----"

"We'll be on friendly territory," shouted Pee-wee. "Your land can camp
here with us if it wants to."

"Or you can take it away, just as you please," said Townsend. "Only we
warn you not to take any liberties with this scow. We're personally
acquainted with Mr. Steam of the Steam Dredging Company and we're going
to charter this scow, now that we're on it. We can get a