"No; I would say, sir," suggested Tom Reade, "that you made the mistake of proceeding on one sign, instead of looking for all three."

"Have another ice!" urged Mr. Hibbert, brightening at once. "You have set me straight. I wasn't a fool, after all---merely too swift"

But the boys shook their heads as they murmured their thanks.

So they were about to rise when a voice called cheerily behind them:

"Stay where you are, fellows. We'll have an ice cream all around."

"d.i.c.k!" cried five eager voices at once, as Prescott came smilingly to join them. Then their eyes all framed the same question, which their lips refused to utter.

"Did you sell the canoe?"

As d.i.c.k glanced inquiringly at young Mr. Hibbert, Dave Darrin presented him. d.i.c.k also learned that Hibbert had been a willing host to five of the chums.

"Now, you'll turn about and eat an ice cream with us, won't you, Mr. Hibbert?" urged young Prescott.

This the young man consented to do, though, as soon as the dainty had been disposed of, he begged to be excused that he might go and have further talk with Tom Colquitt.

"You sold the canoe, I think, d.i.c.k?" said Tom, as soon as their late host had left them.

"Yes," beamed their leader.

"You might tell us what you got for it," urged Danny Grin.

"Guess," hinted d.i.c.k.

"Fifty," said Dave promptly.

"He said he wouldn't take less than ninety," retorted Hazelton.

"Ninety dollars," guessed Tom.

"Fellows," laughed d.i.c.k, "at one time on the train I was so downhearted and glum over the chances of a trade that I believe I would have jumped at fifty dollars. Then I remembered my promise not to take less than ninety dollars. With that I soared to a hundred dollars, then down, by degrees, to seventy. But my promise pulled me back to ninety."

"It wasn't exactly a promise," Dave broke in. "Anyway, d.i.c.k, it wasn't the kind of promise that had to be kept."

"Half the time I felt that the promise had to be kept, and the other half of the time I felt that it might better be broken,"

Prescott went on, laughingly. "Just as I reached Porthampton, however, and saw all the fine summer homes there, my figures began to rise. I realized, of course, that a birch bark canoe is a good deal of a rarity in these days; that such a boat hasn't anything like a hard-and-fast, staple value. A birch bark canoe, in other words, is worth what it will bring."

"And no more," nodded Dave Darrin. "So you were wise to take the fifty dollars."

"Who said that I took fifty dollars for the canoe?" d.i.c.k smiled back.

"What did you get?" insisted Harry Hazelton, his impatience increasing with every minute.

"Do you really want to know what I got?" teased d.i.c.k.

"Of course I do," snorted Harry. "We all do!"

"Then I'll tell you," nodded d.i.c.k. Instead, however, he began feeling in his pockets.

"Tell us, then!" ordered Hazelton gruffly.

"I got a check," smiled d.i.c.k.

"For how much?" pressed Hazelton.

"Well, let me explain," said d.i.c.k, still laughing. "You see, I didn't have to do any describing or praising of the canoe, for Mr. Eades, who bought the canoe for his crowd, was here three days ago, as you know, and looked the canoe over, in water and out. It was just a question of settling the price of the canoe.

So, when I reached Mr. Eades, we started in to bargain. He asked me how much I wanted for the canoe. I guess, fellows, my nerve must have gone to my head, for I told him two hundred dollars."

"You didn't get it?" gasped Hazelton.

"I didn't," d.i.c.k answered soberly.

"How much-----"

"Mr. Eades told me he represented himself and a.s.sociates, who wanted the canoe to put on the little lake down at their country club. I told him it seemed to me that a canoe like ours was an expensive sort of thing to put in a pond. Then he offered me seventy-five dollars."

"That's a good, round sum, and will help us out a lot this summer,"

nodded Dave Darrin. "I'm glad you accepted it."

"I didn't," smiled d.i.c.k. "Mr. Eades finally offered eighty, and I told him I regretted that we hadn't done the trading at the time that he came over to Gridley to see the canoe. Mr. Eades replied that at the time he came here he wasn't authorized to speak for his friends, but merely to look at the canoe and report.

After that he made one or two more small increases in his price, but I seemed to have lost interest in the subject of a trade and looked at my time table to see when the next train left for Gridley. Then we talked about other matters, and, fellows, I was pretty glum, though I didn't allow the fact to show. Finally, he offered me more money, and then a little more. At last I came down on my price, and made him my final offer. Mr. Eades didn't seem to like it, and then, all of a sudden, he took out his check book and wrote a check for me."

"Close to a hundred dollars?" asked Dave, with deep interest.

For answer d.i.c.k threw the check on the table. There was a wild scramble for it.

"A hundred and fifty dollars!" gasped Tom Reade.

"Let me see that check!" demanded Greg Holmes unbelievingly.

The check went from hand to hand, each of the fellows looking at it half bewildered. Yet certainly the check said one hundred and fifty dollars.

"See here, d.i.c.k," asked Tom anxiously, "are you sure---positive, that is---that it was honest to charge a hundred and fifty for that canoe of ours?"

"You may be sure that I thought of that," Prescott answered.

"I don't want to defraud any man. But birch bark suitable for canoes is getting to be a thing of the past in this country.

Our friend, Hiram Driggs, the boat builder, told me that a birch bark canoe, nowadays, is simply worth all one can get for it.

But, after Mr. Eades had written the check and handed it to me, he said: 'Now, the trade is made and closed, Prescott, what do you really consider the canoe worth?' I answered him a good deal as I've answered you, and offered to return the check if Mr. Eades wasn't satisfied. Fellows, for just a moment or two my heart was in my mouth for fear he'd take me up and ask for the return of his check. But Mr. Eades merely smiled, and said he was satisfied if I was."

"I'll bet he'd have gone to a two hundred dollar price," declared Hazelton. "d.i.c.k, weren't you sorry, afterwards, that you didn't hold out flat for two hundred dollars?"

"Not I," young Prescott answered promptly. "If I had been too greedy I'd have deserved to lose altogether, and very likely I would have lost. Fellows, I think we can be well satisfied with the price we've obtained."

"I am!" declared Dave Darrin promptly. "We've realized a hundred dollars above my wildest dream."