One of the arrows struck a tree and stuck in the bark. The
children laughed and ran and pulled it out.
"Do that again!" they cried.
Thorn did it again to shouts and the clapping of hands. Then a boy
named Periwinkle threw up a piece of bark and cried, "Hit that!"
Thorn tried over and over again, but he could not. At last he grew
tired of shooting. Then the children crowded round him, and Clam said,
"Come home with us. Show your bow to the other children."
"How can I get there?" Thorn asked.
"Swim across the river, then walk."
"I cannot swim."
The children laughed and thought that very strange, but Periwinkle
said, "Well, we will push you on the raft."
"Yes, yes!" cried the other children.
So Thorn told his grandfather that he was going home with the shell
mound people. And when the men had bought their axes, the children all
ran down to the river together.
Some of the boys quickly tied a wild grape vine to the raft. Then they
cried, "Here we go!" and dived into the river and swam away, pulling
the raft. Laughing and shouting and splashing, the others jumped in
and followed. They came up alongside the raft and pushed it with one
hand and swam with the other.
[Illustration: They dived into the river and swam away, pulling the
raft]
Before long, all the children on one side of the raft shouted and waved
their arms and dived. They came up on the other side of the raft.
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