debtor.

"Of course, Popper'll pay everything back if we ever get home.
But--Oh! dear! How I hate it all!"

For down in his heart he realized that no amount of money could cover
his obligation to these friends, and he started off in a most unhappy
frame of mind.

"I'll find that girl and teach her to mind her own business. The idea
of her training those monkeys--my monkeys! Course, she's done it all
wrong, and it's harder to unlearn a thing than learn it right first
off. When they're trained they ought to be worth ten times as much as
we paid for them. I might sell 'em to an organ-grinder, if Popper'd
buy out Melvin's share."

But at this stage of thought it occurred to him that he couldn't
picture his dandyish father dealing with organ-grinders. Indeed, the
idea was so absurd that it made him laugh, and in that laughter his
ill-temper vanished, or nearly so. After all, it was good to be alive!
Even the freedom of the woods, after the stuffy cabin he had left, was
delightful. He'd rather have had it the freedom of the city streets,
but this was better than nothing.

He began to whistle, imitating the call of a bird in the tree
overhead, and with such fair success that he was proud of himself. The
bird ceased, startled, then flew onward. Gerald followed, still
practicing that wild, sweet note, till suddenly his music was
interrupted by another cry, which was neither bird nor joyous, but one
of keen anxiety; then, as if it had come out of the ground, a girl
begged:

"Oh! whoever you are, come quick!"

"Why, Elsa! I was looking--Hello! Of all things!"

Almost hidden by the great ferns amid which she sat Elsa held, lying
across her lap, a little figure in faded gingham.

"Saint Augustine! The boy I heard 'em say was lost! How did he get
here? It must be a long way from his house."

Elsa pointed pityingly to the bare little feet and legs, cruelly
scratched and with dark bruises.

"I don't know. I found him just this way."

"Sainty! Wake up! My! How sound he sleeps! And how red his face is!"

"He's sick. I'm sure. I found him all curled up, his little arms under
his head. He moans, sometimes, but he doesn't know anything that I
say."

At that moment a hoarse yell made Gerald look away from the boy and a
leap of something to his shoulder made him yell in response.

"Jocko! Down! Behave! Oh! he'll hurt you. They've both been asleep in
that spot where the sun shines through. Oh! Stop--stop!"

The monkey was