commenced to erect the sides of the squatty shelter by driving stakes
into the ground, "is that I hope we haven't come all the way up here on
a reg'lar fool's errand. It'd cost Mrs. Hopewell a pretty good sum, and
be a real disappointment to her, if after all we didn't find that
good-for-nothing nephew of hers, Roland Chase. Honest to goodness now,
I'm a little inclined to believe he'll be leading us a wild-goose Chase,
if you want my opinion."

"Oh! l-l-let up, c-c-can't you, Bandy-legs!" spluttered the indignant
Toby, pausing for a minute to wipe the beads of perspiration from his
brow, and regain his breath in the bargain. "You're g-g-getting to be a
regular old g-g-granny, that's what, with all your d-d-dismal
p-p-prophesies. Tell me, d-d-did we _ever_ f-f-fail yet in anything we
undertook? C-c-course we haven't. Right in the start we found all those
b-b-bully p-p-pearls in those mussels we g-g-gathered in the Big
Sunflower River, and laid away a n-n-nice n-n-nest-egg in bank for the
crowd. Sure we'll f-f-find Roland Chase; we've just g-g-got to, that's
all."

"All I want to say about it, boys," observed Max, "is that I admire the
grit of the boy. They told us he was something of a dude, didn't they,
and that his rich uncle was afraid he'd never amount to much anyhow; so
what did he do but make a most _extraordinary_ will; at least, everybody
who's heard about that proviso says so. I heard Judge Perkins say though
he guessed the old man knew boys better than most folks, and had taken
a wise course to prove whether this Roland had any snap in him or not."

"Well, he was left just two thousand dollars cash down," said
Bandy-legs, in a thoughtful manner, as though reviewing the singular
circumstance, "and if at the end of two years he could show that he had