Part 7 (1/2)
”Nixy, never, not me!” declared the tall boy, as he came scrambling down from his elevated perch. ”The ground's good enough for this chicken. If I ever dropped from this height, whatever would happen to my bones, tell me that? Now, let's see if you can climb down, Toby.”
Toby proved to be all right again, now that he had regained an upright position, and the blood ceased to gather in his head. He made a decent job of it, dropping down the tree. Lil Artha kept close beside him, to guard against any accident, for, as he said, he ”didn't want to have his work all for nothing, and let Toby get a broken leg after he had once been safely rescued.”
They all arrived on the ground under the tree about the same time.
Toby's first thought seemed to be in connection with his beloved parachute, and, of course, he started for the spot where the broken umbrella-like apparatus lay, upside down; as Lil Artha declared, ”for all the world like a duck that, being shot in the air, had fallen on its back.”
Hardly had the unfortunate Toby taken half a dozen steps away than Lil Artha suddenly burst out into shrieks of laughter that caused the other to whirl around in his tracks and look at him in astonishment.
”What ails you, now, I'd just like to know, Lil Artha?” he demanded.
”You sure act like you'd gone bug-house. Say, Elmer, is he crazy, or can it be the reaction set in after his daring feat in grabbing me?”
”Turn around!” yelled Lil Artha. ”Let Elmer see the air hole he made.
Oh, my! Oh, me! but don't you feel cold? Ain't you afraid of a draught, Toby?”
Toby apparently suddenly began to understand, and as his hand went back of him a grin broke over his face.
”Oh, murder!” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, ”he cut out the whole seat, and these are my newest trousers, too! Won't I get it, though, when mom sees what's happened? And I don't dare tell her how it was done, because she wouldn't let me keep on studying about aeroplanes and such. Whatever am I going to do now!”
”I'd advise you to get an awning before you show yourself in town,”
jeered Lil Artha. ”If any of the scouts see you, Toby, they'll sure think you're flying a flag of truce. But don't you blame Elmer for your troubles, hear? He did the only thing there was open to him. And if he hadn't happened to have that sharp knife along, you might be hanging up there yet and for some time to come; get that?”
”Sure, and I'm making no kick,” replied Toby, with a grimace. ”Reckon I pulled out of a bad sc.r.a.pe lucky enough. Wow! Thought at one time my goose was cooked! But it's all right now, it's all right, boys!”
”Yes,” sang Lil Artha, ”everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high, or he did up to the time his chums happened along and yanked him down.
But it was a good thing for you, Toby, Elmer here happened to be sent over to Mr. Bailey's house, and concluded to take the short cut through the woods.”
”Well,” remarked Toby, philosophically, and boy fas.h.i.+on, ”I always heard it was better to be born lucky than rich, and now I believe it.”
”Come along, Lil Artha,” said Elmer; ”we've got business on hand, you remember, and can't waste any more time here. But I hope Toby won't think of trying to drop down from the top of Echo Cliff again.”
”Not if he knows it,” returned the other, whose face was scratched in several places from contact with twigs during his crash into the tree.
”Next time I try out any of my inventions I'll make sure to pick a place where there ain't any plagued trees. Perhaps I might try a jump from the old church tower some fine day. That would make the people of sleepy old Hickory Ridge stare some, hey?”
”I sure think it would,” returned Lil Artha, as he stepped off after Elmer; ”and your folks in particular. I see you're in for a heap of trouble, Toby, with these fool notions of yours. It'll be a good thing if you get cured before you're killed.”
”That's a fact,” called out Toby, with one of his grins; ”because it wouldn't be much use after that same thing happened, hey?”
Elmer was chuckling as he walked along.
”Never will forget how Toby looked as he kicked, and pawed, and tried to get hold of something,” he remarked to his companion.
”Same here, Elmer,” replied the other, shaking with merriment.
”But all the same it was a ticklish thing for Toby, and what you might call a close shave,” declared Elmer, thoughtfully.