And Kernel Cob and Sweetclover sailed and sailed for many days and
nights.
"I wonder where we are and if we shall ever be on land again," sighed
poor little Sweetclover.
"Of course we will," answered Kernel Cob although he, too, was
doubtful, but being a soldier he had to keep his courage up and to
cheer Sweetclover. So he pretended that they were perfectly safe.
And on they sailed and you couldn't see anything but water for miles
and miles, no matter where you looked.
"What's that?" said Sweetclover, and she was so excited that she
nearly tipped over the boat.
"I can't see anything but water and a little too much of that to suit
me," said Kernel Cob.
"Don't you see something dark against the sky?" she asked.
"No, I don't," said Kernel Cob, and he shaded his eyes with his hand
the way sailors do when they look for something at sea.
"I hope it isn't a whale," said Sweetclover.
"It had better not be," said Kernel Cob, "if he knows what's good for
him," and he patted his sword in a very brave manner.
"It's getting bigger and bigger," said Sweetclover. "Don't you see
it?"
"Sure!" said Kernel Cob, "I saw it all the time, it's a ship." And
like all people who tell fibs he was found out, for it wasn't a ship
at all.
"It's land!" said Sweetclover, joyfully, and sure enough it was, for
soon you could see the trees. And as they sailed closer the trees grew
taller and taller, and after a while you could see the shore.
"It's a little island," said Sweetclover.
"What's an island?" asked Kernel Cob.
"Didn't you ever go to school?" asked Sweetclover.
"No, but I wish I had."
But Kernel Cob didn't answer. He just steered the shoeboat toward the
shore by putting one leg over the side as if it were a rudder, and in
a little while they ran the boat up on the shore and Sweetclover
hopped out and Kernel Cob pulled the boat up on the beach so the tide,
when it came in, wouldn't take it out to sea again.
And they walked along the beach.
"I'm very hungry," said Sweetclover.
"Sit down here," said Kernel Cob, "and I'll see if I can find
something for dinner." And he went along the beach.
After he had walked a long distance, he found a tree with some nuts on
it, and he picked a lot of them and put them in his hat and started
back to Sweetclover.
You may imagine his astonishment when he reached the spot where he had
left her and discovered that she was not there.
But, all about on the sand, he saw foot-prints as of a great number of
bare footed people.
"The savages have taken her," he muttered, and drawing his sword he
ran off in the direction they had taken.
Through the woods he ran, and pretty soon he came to a clearing and
there was Sweetclover surrounded by about a thousand savages shouting
and dancing and waving spears above their heads. And Kernel Cob
grasped his sword firmly in his hand and ran at them, and, so fiercely
did he fight, that in a minute he had driven away about a hundred of
them. And he would have driven them all away, but his foot slipped
and, before he could get up again, he was overpowered and bound hand
and foot.
And they brought him before their chief who was a great giant.
And when it was night, the savages tied the two captives to trees and
went to sleep about a great fire. And in the middle of the night when
Kernel Cob was thinking of some way in which to make their escape, he
heard something stirring in the grass at his feet.
"Who's that?" he whispered.
"Tommy Hare," was the reply, and he ran out from a stone behind which
he had been hiding.
"Good for you!" said Kernel Cob. "Come stand up on your hind legs,
like a good fellow, and untie me from this tree."
"Who are you?" asked Tommy cautiously.
"I'm Kernel Cob and this is my little friend Sweetclover and we're
looking for Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather and we've been captured
by the savages who may keep us here forever if you don't help us."
"That I will," said Tommy, and in a jiffy he had gnawed them free.
"Now, show us the way down to the beach as quickly as you can," said
Kernel Cob, "for it will be daylight soon and then it will be too
late. Come."
And they started running as fast as they could.
And not a minute too soon, for they had got only half way when they
heard the shouts of the savages and knew that their escape had been
discovered.
Faster and faster they ran, but the savages gained on them at every
step and were soon close upon their heels.
[Illustration]
"Jump on my back!" shouted Tommy, "for I can run faster than all of
them put together."
And they did so and flew over the ground as fast as the wind.
And they reached the shore and jumped into the shoeboat and Tommy
shoved them off with a great push that put them out of sight of land,
and the savages' spears fell in the water behind them.
"That was a narrow escape," said Sweetclover, as she settled down in
the boat. "I hope Tommy Hare wasn't caught by the savages."
But she needn't have worried in the least about Tommy, for as soon as
he had pushed them off, he scurried away and was at that moment
sitting under a tree, eating his breakfast.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]