found I wasn't going to die a terrible death (that's what Pee-wee
called it) I didn't have sense enough to take away that note that I
stuck on the reeds. When I stuck it there I reached up as high as I
could, So even when the tide was high up there, I guess it didn't
reach it. I was so excited to find I could get away that I never thought
anything about it. And when I sailed into Little Valley in my Indian
canoe, gee, I had forgotten all about it.

I found that the troop had done a good day's
work caulking the hull up and slapping a couple of coats of copper
paint on it, while the tide was out. So then we decided that as long
as the tide was going down, we'd float her down with it to the Bridgeboro
River and then wait for the up tide to float her upstream to Bridgeboro.
We decided that we'd rather fix her up in Bridgeboro. So you see that
this chapter is about the tide, too. Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Donnelle both
told me that I must have plenty of movement in my story, so I guess the
tide's a good character for a story, because it's always moving.

Well, you ought to have seen those fellows when I sailed in shouting
that I was Weetonka, the famous Indian chief. Doc Carson dropped his
paint brush on Connie Bennett and he was splashed all over with copper
paint--good night!

"Where did you get that thing," Pee-wee shouted, "it looks like a
horse's trough."

"You have to part your hair in the middle to ride in it, I can tell you
that," I told him.

"Where were you all the time?" he said.