the circumstances, I deemed it prudent to stay up in the tree, where
they could not see me. They drove the bull off into another pasture.
As soon as the coast was clear I climbed down, but I happened to see a
rare bit of quartz sparkling in the sun on the edge of the well-curb.
Imprudently I stood on the planking and fell in."

"Gracious, it's a lucky thing you weren't drowned, with all that
weight round your neck," declared Jack.

"It was fortunate," said the scientist mildly, as if such a thing as
drowning was an everyday occurrence. "As a matter of fact, if I hadn't
succeeded in grasping a projecting stone and held on, I might have
gone down. It was an--er--a most discomforting experience."

"Well, of all things," exclaimed the red-faced man, "to go trapesing
round the country collecting rocks!"

"Not rocks, sir--geological specimens," rejoined the professor with
immense dignity, "and--great Huxley! Under your foot, sir! Under your
foot!"

"What is it, a snake?" yelled the farmer, jumping backward as the
scientist dashed at him with a wild expression.

"No, sir, but a remarkably fine specimen of what appears to be a
granolithic substance," exclaimed the professor, and he began
energetically chipping at a rock upon which the farmer had been
standing.

"Crazy as a loon," declared the farmer, winking at his men. "Gets