"Hum!" grunts Jonadab, kind of dry and bitter, as if he'd been taking
wormwood tea; "_I_ see. He's been having a good time making durn fools
out of us."

"Well," says Ebenezer, "not exactly that, p'raps, but--"

And then along comes Archie and his crowd in the other ice-boat.

"Hi!" he yells. "Who sailed that boat of yours? He knew his business all
right. I never saw anything better. Phil--why, where IS Phil?"

I answered him. "Phil got out when we jibed," I says.

"Was THAT Phil?" he hollers, and then the three of 'em just roared.

"Oh, by Jove, you know!" says Archie, "that's the funniest thing I ever
saw. And on Phil, too! He'll never hear the last of it at the club--hey,
boys?" And then they just bellered and laughed again.

When they'd gone, Jonadab turned to Ebenezer and he says: "That taking
us out on this boat was another case of having fun with the countrymen.
Hey?"

"I guess so," says Dillaway. "I b'lieve he told one of the guests that
he was going to put Cape Cod on ice this morning."

I looked away up the river where a little black speck was just getting
to shore. And I thought of how chilly the wind was out there, and how
that ice-water must have felt, and what a long ways 'twas from home.
And then I smiled, slow and wide; there was a barge load of joy in every