"Sure it is!" vociferated Pee-wee, caught by the idea of a sandwich so huge and picturesque. "We're kind of like one of the slices of bread and the scow is the other slice. It's thick and dark like rye bread," he added to make the picture more graphic.
"It's a kind of a legal sandwich," said Townsend, sitting back against the tree with his knees drawn up and talking with a calmness and seriousness which aroused the wrath of old Trimmer. "It's a kind of an interesting situation. We have as much right on the scow as the land has, as I see it----"
"Sure, you learn that in the third grade!" shouted Pee-wee. "That's logic."
"Really, the best thing to do," drawled Townsend, "would be to remove the land, which would let us down onto the scow and that would let you out of the difficulty. We'd be answerable to the owner of the scow."
"It belonged to the big dredge," Pee-wee said excitedly. "I knew all the men on that dredge; I used to hang out on that dredge; those men were all friends of mine. We wouldn't be trespassing except your land is in the way."
"If you want us to shovel the land out of here we'll do it," suggested Roly Poly.
"Then the tree'll fall over," said Brownie.
"Gee whiz," shouted Pee-wee, "it'll serve the tree right because all the time fellers are being accused of trespassing in apple trees and now you can see for yourself that apple trees are just as bad. They trespass on scows."
"We could have this tree fined ten dollars," said Billy, "if we wanted to report it to the dredging company in New York."
"Or it would have to go to jail for thirty days," yelled Pee-wee.
"I don't see what we're going to do, Mr. Trimmer," said Townsend.
"I know what we're going to do," said Pee-wee; "we're going to do a lot of things. We're natives of this island."
"We don't recognize this land," said Townsend; "we consider it beneath us."
"It simply happens to trespass on the scow first," said Townsend. "I think we'll stand on our rights."
"Well, yer ain't goin' ter stand on my property, yer ain't!" old Trimmer bellowed, his wrath rising. Townsend's calmness seemed to goad him to a perfect frenzy.
"Well, then," said Townsend, "the only thing for us to do is to shovel out a space and camp on that. Then our feet will be on the scow----"