"
"No, I ain't" snapped Zenas Henry with rising ire. "It's only
sometimes the thing gets spleeny. Most always--"
"Then it warn't you I saw pitchin' in the channel fur a couple of hours
yesterday afternoon," commented the tormentor.
"No. That is--let me think a minute," meditated Zenas Henry. "Yes, I
guess it was me, after all," he admitted with reluctant honesty. "The
tide brought in quite a batch of weeds, an' they washed up round the
boat before I could get out of their way; quicker'n a wink we were
neatly snarled up in 'em. Captain Jonas an' Captain Phineas tried to
get clear, but somehow they ain't got much knack fur freein' the wheel.
So we did linger in the channel a spell."
"Linger!" put in Willie. "I shouldn't call bobbin' up an' down in one
spot fur two mortal hours lingerin'. I'd call it nearer bein'
hypnotized."
Zenas Henry was now plainly out of temper. He was well aware that
Wilton had scant sympathy with his motor-boat, the first innovation of
the sort that had been perpetrated in the town.
"Hadn't you better turn your attention from motor-boats to pumps?" he
asked testily.
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