FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>  
the boat. The frightened young Scout, not knowing how deep the water was under him, wrapped his legs around the sweep which remained upright, and clung to it yelling for help. The impetus of the boat carried the craft on about twenty-five feet before it was stopped by the current, for the polesmen had stopped work and turned around to whoop with laughter and delight when they saw the ridiculous figure perched on the oar in midstream still crying for rescue. Shouting words of encouragement they let the boat drift slowly down stream again. Before they reached him, Pepper's strength gave out, and he slid slowly down the sweep, and was preparing to battle for his life in the icy water when his moccasins brought upon a rock in a foot of water, and he pulled the oar loose, and as the stern of the boat reached him stepped aboard with a foolish expression on his face, barely wet to the knees. It would be cruel to Pepper to record in this history the sarcastic expressions of admiration for his agility and ability "to reach out and grab trouble every time it went by," as Dick expressed it. There were references to the "champeen pole vault of Alaska; height ten feet; depth, twelve inches," "veteran oarsman of the Gold," "Rocked into the Cradle of the Deep," but the last comment which brought out the old Pepperian red through the tan and the yellow of the mosquito "dope" was a quotation from an old boyhood rhyme made by Gerald, apropos of "appearances." "Willie had a purple monkey, climbing on a yellow stick, Willie sucked the purple monkey and it made him deadly sick." Arrived at the meadows they found the grass grown to the height of their heads and a wealth of wild flowers such as they had never seen before. Acres of yellow poppies, wild geraniums, bluish in color, saxifrage, magenta colored epilobium, moccasin plants and a hundred others with familiar faces. But what pleased Swiftwater especially were the immense quantity of dandelions. He set the boys at work gathering all the plants they could secure, while himself began to hunt for a peculiar wild onion, which he finally found in abundance. He also found sorrel, both the tops and root of which are pleasant to the taste. They half filled the boat with these and other harmless edible plants, and then late in the afternoon started to pole up the river to the fishing grounds, intending to try for th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>  



Top keywords:

yellow

 

plants

 

height

 
slowly
 
purple
 

brought

 
monkey
 

Willie

 

reached

 

Pepper


stopped
 

afternoon

 

meadows

 

Arrived

 

deadly

 
climbing
 

sucked

 

poppies

 

geraniums

 
started

wealth

 
flowers
 

mosquito

 

quotation

 

Pepperian

 

boyhood

 

apropos

 
fishing
 

appearances

 

Gerald


grounds

 

intending

 

bluish

 

saxifrage

 

gathering

 

quantity

 

dandelions

 

comment

 

secure

 

finally


sorrel

 

abundance

 

peculiar

 

pleasant

 

filled

 

edible

 
hundred
 

harmless

 

moccasin

 

epilobium