might hope and believe that all was well with the missing lads.

The water-logged craft was left on the shoal, secured to its fastening, and Jeremiah Murch promised his boys they would have a good time, next day, when he brought them over to bale her out and get her home to the dock.

When the sturdy strokes of the six oarsmen had brought the whale-boat alongside of Acadia wharf, the lads set up a shrill cheer, for there was a group of women on the landing-place, dressed as if to show that they had hurried down to the wharf in great haste to wait for a boat, which, it was reported, showed a green light at her bow. It was the Veto's whale-boat, sure enough; and rising above the boyish voices of the shipwrecked crew, rang out the commanding tones of Master Parker's cry of "All's well, Mother! All's well, and all here!"

There were thankful hearts in Fairport that night, and I am glad to set down the truth that, long before the little adventurers were sighted from the wharf, Mistress Murch's heart had melted within her, and she never once thought of the willow switch which she had persuaded herself she would need when Jotham and Samuel came home.

CHAPTER XVI

HIS LITTLE JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD

COMFORT STOVER, one of Madam Parker's handmaids, who was very much given to noting signs, omens, and wonders, took Lem aside, early one morning, and whispered in his ear, "I hope nothin' has happened to your brother Hal, Lem." Then she drew back and looked Lem square in the face, with her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

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Why should anything happen to him?" demanded Lem, crossly. He did not like Comfort's uncomfortable way of hinting dreadful things.

"Wal, you see, Lem," she said lowering her voice again, "his pet crow is dead, dead as a doornail. I found him dead when I went out to the wood-house this morning." Even Lem was a little staggered at this. He ran out into the wood-house, and there, stiff and black, lying on the saw-horse, was Hal's pet.

"Don't let on to your mother that this'ere has happened," whispered Comfort; "she'll think it is a sign that something has happened to Hal." But Lem was not to be scared in this way. He rushed into the house, and broke the news violently by

shouting, "Hal's crow is dead! Hal's crow is dead!" Even if he was likely to be worried by signs, Lem was not the boy to keep back any piece of news on which he chanced to fall. The entire household, or at least the younger part of it, ran out to see with their own eyes if Lem's report was a true one.

Madam Parker calmly said: "Poor Hal brought home that crow to see if he would live to be one hundred years old. I suppose he expected to live one hundred years, himself, to watch the crow's living. But the bird, besides being a noisy nuisance, has always been a poor, feeble creature. Captivity did not agree with him; and for the past few days I have noticed that he did not eat much. I guess he died of loneliness. I'm glad he's dead." Comfort Stover looked shocked.

When the news of John Crow's death went abroad among Lem's mates, it was generally looked upon as "a bad sign" that the crow should die. while its owner was at sea. Some of the loose talk of the gossips came back to Lem, and he was a little uncomfortable; but he gave the bird an honorable burial, and the boys all turned in with much gusto to assist at the funeral. John Crow was put into a box made of cedar shingles, and as the little procession of boys filed to the foot of the old willow tree behind the barn, Lem solemnly struck with a wooden mallet a crow-bar hung from the tree. The sound was very much like that of a tolling bell, and as the mourners heard its

note they put some real grief into the dirge they were singing. But it so happened that their dirge was not written for a bird, but for a bird's enemy; it was called, "The tune the old cat died of."

But the domestic grief of the family was soon forgotten in the surprising news that it had been determined by the rulers of the house, that is to say, the father and the mother, that Lem should go on a visit to his uncle in Boston. Mr. Lemuel Parker was a prosperous merchant in that great and famous city. He had given his name and a silver spoon and porringer to Lemuel Parker; and he had always shown a kindly interest in the boy's welfare. Now he and his wife, Aunt Esther, had sent a letter inviting Lem to come to Boston and make as long a visit as his parents might think best! Wonderful! But Lem might get homesick and try to run away to home again. This is what Almira thought. Her mother smiled, and Master Parker said that Lem was a very small boy when he ran away from Riverport. He was now old enough to take care of himself, and too big to get homesick. Lem entirely agreed with his father. And his mother added that Uncle Lemuel knew how to look out for boys; he had brought up sons of his own; he would see that Lem did not lack and means of amusement.

for ways

The schooner William and Sally, of which Master Parker was one of the owners, would sail for Boston in a few weeks. She was now loading

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a cargo of lumber at Bangor, and when she dropped down the river, and got ready for her voyage, Lem should be made ready to sail on her. Lem remembered the joy he felt when he was told that he might go to visit his Aunt Stover, in Riverport, and although that jaunt had not turned out happily, he still looked back with a thrill of pleasure to the little journey in the rolling, rocking stage. But Boston! the be-all and end-all of a New England village boy's life! It was like a beautiful dream. It could not be possible that he, a mere lad, should have the dream made real by a visit to the great city!

But the long-looked-for day came, when, after a week's delay getting down the river, and another week's delay at Fairport, the wind and the tide actually served Captain Snowman's purpose, and he sent word that he would sail.

Captain Snowman was also an observer of signs and omens. He would not have a pig killed except on the full of the moon and a flood-tide. "The meat would shrink in the b'ilin' if it is not properly killed." And although the owners of the William and Sally fretted, and Lem nearly went mad while the old salt waited, he would not budge an inch until he was good and ready.

"I don't want you to eat any of Vene Snowman's cooking, if you can help it," Madam Parker had said to Lem. Vene's full name was Silvanus ; he was Captain Snowman's youngest son, a boy