Bye." The boy turned abruptly and walked away.
"Hold on! Not so fast, boy.

How far is it to Joe's ?" demanded Tom.
"Nigh onto thirty mile," flung back the boy.
"I wish I had stayed at home," wailed Emma Dean.
"We have not yet begun, dear," reminded Elfreda Briggs, to which Anne Nesbit and Nora Wingate agreed with emphatic nods.
"Tom Gray, I fear you have made a mess of selecting a guide to pilot us through the Big North Woods of Minnesota," declared Grace with a doubtful shake of the head.
"I can't help that.

I engaged Shafto on the recommendation of the postmaster of this very town.

He wrote me that, according to his information, no man in the state knows the woods so well as this fellow Shafto does.

At my request, the postmaster engaged him for us, so don't blame me because Joe is doing the family washing instead of being here to meet us," retorted Tom with a show of impatience.
"Lay it to the postmaster and let it go at that," suggested Hippy good-naturedly.
"Tom, I am really amazed that you, a woodsman and a professional forester, should require the services of a guide," teased Anne.
"I don't.