In Which I Acquire a Friend

We proceeded, therefore, through the wood, sweet in the dew of
morning, among many twittering birds, and so came, presently, to the
end of my path, where the little gate shuts it off from my mowing
meadow; at the upper end of which, it may be remembered, the good ship
Sea Rover lay anchored. The grass stood waist-high and wet in the
dew as we turned along the meadow side, and L'Olonnois flinched a bit,
although Lafitte waded along carelessly.

I observed that each boy had now thrust into his hat band a turkey
feather, picked up, en route, along my field's edge. Jimmy was not
sure of the correctness of this; and admitted that, sometimes, he had
read literature having to do with Indian fighting, as well as
piratical enterprises. I suggested that, to my mind, nothing quite
took the place of the regulation red kerchief bound about the head;
whereat, gravely, both L'Olonnois and Lafitte discarded their hats and
feathers, for the bandannas which I proffered them. Having bound these
about their foreheads, a great courage and confidence came to them.

L'Olonnois drew his sword, and with some care placed the blade
between his teeth. "Hist!" exclaimed Lafitte, himself swept by his
friend's imagination, and preparing to place his cutlass in his mouth
also. "Let us approach the vessel with care, lest the enemy be about."
So saying, each pirate with a mouthful of cold steel, and a hand
shading his red-kerchiefed brow, stole through my clump of birches
toward the bend, where the boat had first surprised me; myself
following, somewhat put to it to refrain from laughter, although one
rarely laughs in the young hours of the day, and myself rarely, at
all.