"Come out here, will you. We're in a peck of trouble, I reckon,"
continued the voice from beyond the door; and accordingly Maurice
made haste to leave the cabin.

He found Thad with a pole in his hand, shoving against the bank
until he was as red as a turkey gobbler in the face.

"What's doing here--why all this scrimmage?" naturally sprang from
the lips of the mystified one.

"Stuck fast--river taken a sudden notion to go down while we
snoozed, and has left us on the mud. I don't seem able to budge
the thing an inch; but perhaps the two of us might," returned
Thad, grinning sheepishly as he contemplated the result of their
indiscretion.

Maurice grasped the significance of the situation and looked
grave.

The river, as he well knew, was always a freakish thing, and apt
to rise or fall at any time, according to the amount of rainfall
along its feeders.

Just now it had commenced to rapidly decline, and as a result the
shanty-boat had been grounded.

As it was a heavy affair, once let it fairly settle upon the ooze
of the creek bed and no power they could bring to bear would be
sufficient to start it on its way; and hence they must stay there,
marooned, until the river took a notion to rise again, which might