yit what he hed bin, an' thet way he run
agin Uncle Salters, who was visitin' 'n Allegheny City. Ha'af my
mother's folks they live scattered inside o' Pennsylvania, an' Uncle
Salters he visits araound winters. Uncle Salters he kinder adopted
Penn, well knowin' what his trouble wuz; an' he brought him East, an'
he give him work on his farm."

"Why, I heard him calling Penn a farmer last night when the boats
bumped. Is your Uncle Salters a farmer?"

"Farmer!" shouted Dan. "There ain't water enough 'tween here an'
Hatt'rus to wash the furrer-mold off'n his boots. He's jest everlastin'
farmer. Why, Harve, I've seen thet man hitch up a bucket, long towards
sundown, an' set twiddlin' the spigot to the scuttle-butt same's ef
'twas a cow's bag. He's thet much farmer. Well, Penn an' he they ran
the farm--up Exeter way 'twur. Uncle Salters he sold it this spring to
a jay from Boston as wanted to build a summer-haouse, an' he got a heap
for it. Well, them two loonies scratched along till, one day, Penn's
church--he'd belonged to the Moravians--found out where he wuz drifted
an' layin', an' wrote to Uncle Salters. 'Never heerd what they said
exactly; but Uncle Salters was mad. He's a 'piscopolian mostly--but he
jest let 'em hev it both sides o' the bow, 's if he was a Baptist; an'
sez he warn't goin' to give up Penn to any blame Moravian connection in
Pennsylvania or anywheres else. Then he come to Dad, towin' Penn,--thet
was two trips back,--an' sez he an' Penn must fish a trip fer their
health. 'Guess he thought the Moravians wouldn't hunt the Banks fer
Jacob Boiler. Dad was agreeable, fer Uncle Salters he'd been fishin'
off an' on fer thirty years, when he warn't inventin' patent manures,
an' he took quarter-share in the _We're Here_; an' the trip done Penn
so much good, Dad made a habit o' takin' him. Some day, Dad sez, he'll
remember his wife an' kids an' Johnstown, an' then, like as not, he'll
die, Dad sez. Don't ye talk abaout Johnstown ner such things to Penn,
'r Uncle Salters he'll heave ye overboard."

"Poor Penn!" murmured Harvey. "I shouldn't ever have thought Uncle
Salters cared for him by the look of 'em together."

"I like Penn, though; we all do," said Dan. "We ought to ha' give him a
tow, but I wanted to tell ye first."

They were close to the schooner now, the other boats a little behind
them.

"You needn't heave in the dories till after dinner," said Troop from
the deck. "We'll dress daown right off. Fix