the bank. Accordingly, the two friends gave 
up their visits for a while. 
They did not, however, cease going up the 
creek as far as the bend, which lay about a 
mile above Patou Pond; since for that dis¬ 
tance there was still reasonably deep water. 
The bend was a delightful place. On one 
side, there lay a great sandbar, thickly over¬ 
grown with bushy willows, whose tender 
shoots made delicious eating. On the other side, 
was a bank about ten feet high, beneath which 
lay a little cave, where O-Go and Thwacker 
could drowse away the long day, whenever 
they did not desire to go home. The cave had 
of course no tunnel leading into it; but the 
bank above it projected out over the creek, 
thereby giving protection from any wander¬ 
ing lynx or coyote. 
The coolness of their cave was particularly 
pleasing to O-Go and Thwacker on a certain 
day in early September; for the weather was 
unusually hot, even for that season. The two 
friends lay stretched at full length on the soft, 
dry sand, now idly napping, now chewing 
indolently at the sticks, which they had 
brought with them into their shelter. 
From time to time, they heard the rumble 
of thunder, but they paid little or no attention 
to it, nor to the fact that it kept getting louder 
and closer. They had no fear of rain, for most 
137 
