"You may be sure that I thought of that," Prescott answered.
"I don't want to defraud any man. But birch bark suitable for
canoes is getting to be a thing of the past in this country.
Our friend, Hiram Driggs, the boat builder, told me that a birch
bark canoe, nowadays, is simply worth all one can get for it.
But, after Mr. Eades had written the check and handed it to me,
he said: 'Now, the trade is made and closed, Prescott, what do
you really consider the canoe worth?' I answered him a good deal
as I've answered you, and offered to return the check if Mr. Eades
wasn't satisfied. Fellows, for just a moment or two my heart
was in my mouth for fear he'd take me up and ask for the return
of his check. But Mr. Eades merely smiled, and said he was satisfied
if I was."

"I'll bet he'd have gone to a two hundred dollar price," declared
Hazelton. "Dick, weren't you sorry, afterwards, that you didn't
hold out flat for two hundred dollars?"

"Not I," young Prescott answered promptly. "If I had been too
greedy I'd have deserved to lose altogether, and very likely I
would have lost. Fellows, I think we can be well satisfied with
the price we've obtained."

"I am!" declared Dave Darrin promptly. "We've realized a hundred
dollars above my wildest dream."

Incidentally it may be mentioned that Mr. Eades found, from his
friends, that he had a prize, indeed, in the fine old war canoe.
The grounds committee of another country club offered two hundred