who were followed the second time, but
they easily shook off their pursuers as the twilight was coming, half
waded, half swam down the creek, and climbed up to "The Alcove," where
the others were waiting for them with cooked food and clear cold water.
When they had eaten and were refreshed, Shif'less Sol sat at the mouth
of "The Alcove," where a pleasant breeze entered, despite the foliage
that hid the entrance. The shiftless one was in an especially happy
mood.

"It's a pow'ful comf'table feelin'," he said, "to set up in a nice safe
place like this, an' feel that the woods is full o' ragin' heathen,
seekin' to devour you, and wonderin' whar you've gone to. Thar's a heap
in knowin' how to pick your home. I've thought more than once 'bout that
old town, Troy, that Paul tells us 'bout, an' I've 'bout made up my mind
that it wuzn't destroyed 'cause Helen eat too many golden apples, but
'cause old King Prime, or whoever built the place, put it down in a
plain. That wuz shore a pow'ful foolish thing. Now, ef he'd built it on
a mountain, with a steep fall-off on every side, thar wouldn't hev been
enough Greeks in all the earth to take it, considerin' the miserable
weepins they used in them times. Why, Hector could hev set tight on the
walls, laughin' at 'em, 'stead o' goin' out in the plain an' gittin'
killed by A-killus, fur which I've always been sorry."

"It's 'cause people nowadays have more sense than they did in them
ancient times that Paul tells about," said Long Jim. "Now, thar wuz
'Lyssus, ten or twelve years gittin' home from Troy. Allus runnin'
his ship on the rocks, hoppin' into trouble with four-legged giants,
one-eyed women, an' sech like. Why didn't he walk home through the
woods, killin' game on the way, an' hevin' the best time he ever knowed?
Then thar wuz the keerlessness of A-killus' ma, dippin' him in that
river so no arrow could enter him, but holdin' him by the heel an'
keepin' it out o' the water, which caused his death the very first time
Paris shot it off with his little bow an' arrer. Why didn't she hev
sense enough to let the heel go under, too. She could hev dragged it out
in two seconds an' no harm done 'ceptin', perhaps, a little more yellin'
on the part of A-killus."

"I've always thought Paul hez got mixed 'bout that Paris story," said
Tom Ross. "I used to think Paris was the name uv a town, not a man, an'
I'm beginnin' to think so ag'in, sence I've been in the East, 'cause I
know now that'