"I thought so, I thought so!" returned their visitor. "The way youth is pampered now, beats my comprehension. No son of mine would get any of it."

"Don't doubt that, 'Major,'" ventured Dick Travers, with a broad smile.

Zeke Tipson, or, as he was more generally called, the "Major," an appellation the source of which no one ever learned, lived in a tumble-down shack on the river's bank about a half mile distant. He cultivated a small garden, but, believing that hard work injured his constitution, managed to abstain from active employment the greater part of the time. To small boys he was an object of fear, to larger ones, the butt of their pranks, and to the older element, an eccentric character whose quaint ways furnished amusement.

"And what is going to be did with this here boat?" he went on, with cheerful disregard for grammar.

"We are going to have the grandest hunting and fishing cruise that was ever heard of, eh, Tom?" replied Sam Randall, his face shining with enthusiasm.

"Oh, don't wake me, anybody; it's a dream; it's too good to be true," said Tom, blissfully.

Zeke Tipson shook his head disapprovingly. "It ain't right—it ain't right that a parcel of boys should be allowed in a cockle-shell like that," he grumbled. "Then, like as not, you'll be taking each other for deers or bears, and a load of buckshot ain't any too healthy, I can tell you that. Why, I once know'd a—"

"We've hunted before this," put in Bob, hastily, for the "Major" had a habit of relating certain extraordinary remembrances, all noted for their length.

"Well, you might get took with some sickness," persisted Zeke, who seemed to be in a very pessimistic mood. "Now you needn't laugh. There was three fellers I know'd once, and—"

"Oh, look, here comes Nat Wingate!" exclaimed Tom Clifton, suddenly. "I believe he has been following us."

Nat, dressed with his usual care, approached jauntily across the clearing, and nodded to the boys. Then turning, he said: "Hello, 'Major,' how do you find yourself?"

"None the better for looking at you," growled Zeke, a strange light coming into his eyes.

But it is doubtful if Nat heard his remark, for he stopped short and gave a whistle of astonishment, as he took in the graceful lines 

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