Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/168

 "Was he a graduate of a lunatic asylum, or did he go there afterward?" inquired Tom.

Arthur laughed until the woods echoed.

"Neither," he answered, as soon as he could speak. "He's got a level head on his shoulders yet, if one may judge by the constant demands that are made upon his time. Some of the people who come here every summer like him so well that they begin to make bargains with him before the ice is out of the lake. They wouldn't do that if they had any reason to believe he was crazy, would they? Well, what do you say?"

"I say, go ahead whenever you get ready," was the response.

"All right," said Arthur, who saw by the expression on Tom's face that he had no intention of backing out. "Now, watch every move I make, and let me get at least twenty or thirty feet ahead of you before you start. Look out for both ends of your boat. You won't run on to an isolated rock unless you try, because the water runs away from it. That has a tendency to throw the bow from the obstruction, and the stern toward it; so the minute the bow is out