Nor was it any longer necessary for them to run in
to the shore and worry in the dripping forest with wet wood.
"It ain't like that stove we built the time we wuz on the ha'nted islan',"
Long Jim would say, "but it's a heap sight better than nothin."
"It shorely is," said Shif'less Sol. "You ain't much account for anything,
Jim, but you kin cook a leetle bit."
Long Jim smiled contentedly.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHATEAU OF BEAULIEU
They noticed one day a high bluff shooting up on the eastern bank and
running along for some distance. It was clothed in dense green forest, and
it was rather a welcome break in the monotony of the low shores.
"A big city will be built there some day," said the prophetic Paul.[B]
"Now, Paul, why in tarnation do you say that?" exclaimed Tom Ross.
"Why, because it's such a good place. It's a high hill on a great river so
well suited to navigation, and it has a vast, rich country behind it."
But Tom Ross shook his head.
"Seems to me, Paul," he said, "that you're bitin' off a lot more'n you can
chaw. Things that are to happen a hundred years from now ain't never
happenin' fur me."
But Paul merely smiled and held to his opinion.
On the following day they tied up at a point, where the river began a
sharp and wide curve around a long, narrow peninsula.
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