"you see," said aleck, "though i've about seventy-five dollars ahead, yet when we have bought what we shall need, there will not be more than forty dollars left. now, if we go to cleveland in the cars and take our things with us, it'll cost us twenty-five dollars or more, and leave us almost nothing to get started with there."
"s'posin'," said jimkin the wise, "s'posin' we don't go in the cars. cleveland's on the lake, and the lake's all ice; let's skate down to uncle's!"
"humph!" grunted aleck.
"pshaw!" said kate.
"didn't we skate eighteen miles yesterday, and couldn't we have gone farther?" persisted jim, unabashed.
"it's more than a hundred miles to cleveland. think you could do that in one day? besides, how would you know the way?"
"didn't say i could do it in one day. but couldn't we go ashore and stop at night? that's the way the hall boys did, who skated up to detroit last winter."
"i read in the newspaper yesterday," said kate, "that the lake was frozen uncommonly hard, and was solid ice all the way along the shore as far as the headlands of ashtabula."
"if we could be sure of that," aleck admitted, "there might be some use in trying; but one can't be sure. besides, how could we take along our baggage?"
"pull it on a sled," said kate, "the way they do in the arctic regions. men up there just live on the ice, sleep at night and cook their food and travel all day, and they don't have skates either. gracious! who can that be?"
no wonder katy was astonished, for there came echoing through the house a noise as if somebody was pounding the wall down with a stone maul. aleck hastened to put a stop to it by opening the door.
he was greeted by the grinning face of a round-headed, chunky lad nearly his own age, named thucydides montgomery; but as this was too long a name for the western people, it had been cut down very early in life to "tug," which everybody saw at once was the right word, on account of the lad's strength and toughness. the mammas of the village thought him a bad boy, getting their information from the small boys of the public school, whom, in his great fondness for joking, he would sometimes frighten and tease.
aleck knew him better, and knew how brave and goodhearted he was. jim had good cause to be fond of him, for, in behalf of the youngster, during his first week at school, tug had soundly thrashed a bullying tyrant; while kate gratefully remembered various heavy market-baskets he had carried for her, since he lived near by. a closer tie between our little family and their visitor, however, was the fact that, like them, he was an orphan, and, like them, had relatives in cleveland, whom he had often thought he should like to be with better than staying with his aunt here in monore.
when tug had joined the circle gathered before the big fireplace, and had begun to talk about the brass-works, he was promptly hushed by aleck.
"put that up now, and attend to me. this urchin here, who has become very cheeky since he began to go to school—"
"and came under my care," tug interrupted, loftily.
"yes, no doubt. well, the youngster finds we all want to go to cleveland, but can't afford the railway fare, and so he coolly proposes that we skate there."
"well, why don't you do it? i'll go with you," said tug, quietly.
jim shouted with triumph. kate laughed, and clapped her hands at the fun of beating her big brother, and aleck looked as though he thought he was being quizzed.
"do you mean it?" he asked.
"of course i do. i want to go down as badly as you do. i haven't any stamps, and the walking, i'm told, isn't good. i prefer to skate."
"katy says we might drag our luggage on sleds, as they do in the arctic regions; but supposing the ice should break up, or we should come to a big crack?"
"i have read," kate remarks again, "that they carry boats on their sledges, and pack their goods in the boats, so that they will float if the ice gives way."
"take my boat!" screamed jim, eagerly.
"that would call for a big sled."
"well, didn't you two fellows build a pair of bobs last winter big enough to carry that boat?"
"doubtful," answered aleck. but when they brought out the plan of the boat, and then measured the bobs, which were stored in the woodshed, they found them plenty wide, and tug was sure they were sufficiently strong.
kate looked at them rather dubiously, and said she had never read of arctic boats mounted on heavy bobs, but that they always seemed in the pictures to have long, light runners under them; but jim reminded her curtly that "girls didn't know everything," so she kept still, and the planning and talking went on.
young people who are under no necessity to ask permission of older persons, and, besides, are pushed by circumstances, decide quickly on a plan which looks forward to adventure. generally, i fear, they come to grief, and learn some good lessons rather expensively; but sometimes their energy and fearlessness carry them safely through what the caution of old age would have stopped short of trying to perform.
they sat up pretty late discussing the plan, but before tug went to what he said he "s'posed he must call home," they had determined to try it if the weather held firm.
this was on friday. they hoped to get away early in the coming week. then all three went to bed, jim jubilant, and looking forward to a long frolic; kate half doubtful whether it was best, but hopeful; aleck sure that, for himself, he didn't care, hating to put his sister and brother to any risk, yet seeing no better way of resisting poverty; tug resolute, and bound to stand by his friends, whatever happened. so they slept, and bright and early next morning the quiet preparations began, tug declining to answer any questions as to how he arranged the matter of his going with his aunt.
