"But I've heard that there is so much 'science' to making or mending a birch bark canoe that an amateur always makes the job worse." "Haw, haw, haw!" came boisterously from Fred Ripley.

He and Mr.
Dodge were now standing before the table of the auctioneer's clerk.
Fred was paying down the remaining twenty-six dollars on the price he had bid for the handsome chestnut pony.
"Yes, you're laughing at us, you contemptible Rip!" scowled Dave, though he spoke under his breath.

"You can afford to lose money, for you always know where to get more.

You knew this canoe was worthless, and you deliberately bid it up on us---you scoundrel!" "Shall we make Colonel Grundy a present of this canoe ?" suggested Danny Grin dolefully.
"The poor old man hasn't money enough to get the canoe away from here, even if he wanted to," replied Dick, in a voice of sympathy.
"But how did the show folks manage to use this canoe ?" asked Tom Reade.
"They didn't, except on a truck in a street parade, I imagine," Dick replied.

"And that must be how the holes came to be in the bottom.