"Thank you, lad, but I must turn my steps in a different direction."
"Shall I have any difficulty in managing the boat on our course down the river?"
"No, you will drift with the current. It is easy enough to go down stream. The trouble is to get back. But for that, I wouldn't have sold you the boat. At night you tie up anywhere it is convenient, and start again the next morning."
"That seems easy enough. Do you know how far it is to St. Louis, Mr. Slocum?"
"There you have me, lad. I ain't much on reckonin' distances."
"I have heard your father say, Robert, that it is about three hundred miles from here to the city. I don't like to have you go so far from me."
"I've got Clip to take care of me, mother," said Bob, humorously.
"I'll take care of Massa Bob, missis," said Clip, earnestly.
"I suppose I ought to feel satisfied with that assurance," said Mrs. Burton, smiling, "but I have never been accustomed to think of Clip as a guardian."
"I'll guardian, him, missis," promised Clip, amid general laughter.
After dinner, in company with Mr. Slocum, Bob and Clip went on board the ferry-boat, and made a thorough examination of the craft, with special reference to the use for which it was intended.
"You expect to harvest fourteen hundred bushels?" inquired Mr. Slocum.
"Then you may need to make two or three extra bins."
"That will be a simple matter," said Bob.
"The roof over the boat will keep the wheat dry and in good condition. When you get to the city you can sell it all to one party, and superintend the removal yourself. You can hire all the help you need there."
Bob was more and more pleased with his purchase.
"It is just what I wanted," he said, enthusiastically. "The expenses will be almost nothing. We can take a supply of provisions with us, enough to keep us during the trip, and when the business is concluded we can return on some river steamer. We'll have a fine time, Clip."
"You will need to tie the boat," continued Ichabod Slocum, "or it may float off during the night, and that would upset all your plans. Have you a stout rope on the place?"
"I think not. I shall have to buy one at the store, or else cross the river."
"Then you had better attend to that at once. The boat may become dislodged at any moment."