"It takes a lot o' time, goin' up stream, to get back to our start, an' a cantankerous passenger in as narrow a place as a rowboat would make it mighty onpleasant for me an' this lunkhead, Ike, my nephew.

Wouldn't it, Ike ?" Ike grinned and nodded.
"The passenger that I'm speaking of wouldn't be a passenger altogether," said Colonel Kenton.

"He'd like to be one of the crew also, and I don't think he'd make trouble.

Anyway, he's got a claim on you already.
Having fished him out of the river, where he was unconscious, it's your duty to take care of him for a while.

It's my son Harry, who wants to get across the mountains to Virginia, and we'll be greatly obliged to you if you'll take him." Colonel Kenton had a most winning manner.