"Thad, do you think this island could be inhabited?"

It was Davy who asked this question, but Bumpus must have been thinking
along the same lines, for he nodded his head violently and smiled, as
though he awaited Thad's answer with interest.

"Of course I couldn't say," the scout-master observed. "It's only a
small rocky island, you know, and people wouldn't live here the year'
through."

"But they might come here, ain't that so?" Step Hen insisted.

"Why, yes, to fish, or shoot wild fowl in the season," Thad went on to
say.

"Well, I sure do hope there may be some white fish netters here right
now," Step Hen said.

"Or if their ain't, let's wish they'll be comin' along soon," Bumpus
added with a fervency that was certainly genuine.

"I wonder," Davy broke in with, "what we could do if our boat was
carried away, or we found we couldn't mend the same?"

"Huh! What did old Robinson do but build him a boat? Here are six
boys, wide-awake as they make 'em--and I'd like to know why we couldn't
do as much as one man!"

Bumpus said this rather boastfully, not that he had so much confidence
in his own ability to do things as he felt satisfied that Thad and Allan