“Yes,” replied the Indian, “his words do not tell you what is in his heart.”
In the middle of the afternoon, the engine broke down and the boat tied up near the present town of Belle Plaine, about fifty miles above St. Paul.
While the engineers were repairing the machinery, the two boys and their friends went out in two small boats to hunt ducks and geese on the flooded marshes.
They landed on a small island of high land and the men chose a convenient blind behind some bushes. The boys had no guns and had just gone along to watch the fun and to bring in the ducks which the hunters would drop, but they found some unexpected and exciting hunting for themselves.
“See the rabbit, see the rabbit!” Tim cried. “He is sitting on a stump with water all around him.”
The boys were surprised to find that the rabbit did not try to get away as they approached.
“No, he isn’t,” laughed Bill, “I see his nose move; he is breathing.”
Some brush had drifted against the stump and the rabbit had eaten it as far as he had been able to reach.
When the boys lifted the rabbit into the boat, they had another surprise, for nestled under his fur they discovered a black meadow mouse that had also sought refuge on the stump when the water had risen.
“Take him off,” Tim begged, “he’ll freeze to death on the stump,” and Bill took him off and placed him under the rabbit, who was quietly squatting under the seat as if he belonged there.
When the boys returned to the brush-and-grass-covered island, they discovered four more rabbits, who, however, were more lively than the one on the stump. They ran about in a most puzzling zigzag fashion and one even tried to swim across a channel to another piece of dry land. But the boys caught them all and put them in the boat, from which they did not try to escape.
While they were chasing the rabbits the boys made another discovery. The island was alive with black meadow-mice; there were hundreds of them. Every tuft of dead grass, every bush, every pile of dead leaves was crowded with them.
“Oh, Tim,” teased Bill, “let’s row back to the boat and get some pie for all your pets.”
But Tim had caught the twinkle in his brother’s eye. “Ah, you can’t fool me,” he came back. “Don’t you think I know that these wild mice have plenty of grass and brush to eat till the water goes down?”