"Reckon you're right; though to tell the truth I'd never noticed it much,"
Bandy-legs replied.

"Well, you want to wake up and notice everything that happens," advised
Max, seriously. "It's the fellow who keeps awake, and sees and hears it
all, that gets on in this world, Bandy-legs. And you know it, too."

"Sure. I know my weak points, Max; and the best thing about me is the fact
that I want to wake up and do better. But about that moss--does it always
grow exactly on the sides of the trees pointing toward the northwest?"

"In the majority of cases," replied the other; "here and there it may vary
some, but anybody with half an eye can decide the right direction. Then in
the night you have the north star, which you know can always be found by
drawing an imaginary straight line along the two stars forming the end of
the bowl of the Dipper, generally called the Great Bear."

"Oh! that's easy. But once I heard you say a common ordinary watch could
be made to serve as a compass; how about that, Max?" added Bandy-legs,
showing considerable interest in the subject.

"So it can, but I'll explain that at another time. You fellows had better
be moving now," and Max turned his back on the other as the best way to
shut him off; for Bandy-legs was a great questioner.

"So-long!" called out Toby, cheerfully, as he started to follow the trail
left by Max and Steve on their way from the river, half a mile away.

"If we meet up with this mysterious shell gatherer, what ought we to do?"
asked the second boy, halting.