at that time, he would have two hours of daylight in which to
run up with the tide. He saw now that his whole plan was perfectly
feasible, and it only remained to make preparations for the voyage. As
the whole afternoon would be taken up in floating the boat down to
low-water mark, the morning would have to be employed in making
whatever arrangements might be necessary.

Certain things were needed which required all that time. His hastily
extemporized mast and sail had done wonderfully well, but he needed
something to steer with. If he could only procure something that would
serve the purpose of a rudder, he would feel well prepared for his
voyage.

On the search for this he now started. He walked all about the open
ground, looking around in all directions, to see if he could find
anything, but without any success. Then he ascended the declivity
towards the woods, but nothing appeared which was at all adapted to
meet his wants. He saw a young tree, which he thought might do, and
tried to cut it down with his pocket-knife. After about an hour's hard
work he succeeded in bringing it down, and another hour was spent in
trimming the branches. The result of all this labor at length lay at
his feet in the shape of a rough pole, with jagged splinters sticking
out all over it, which promised to be of about as much utility as a
spruce bush. In utter disgust he turned away, leaving the pole on the
ground, and making up his mind to sail, as he did before, without any
rudder. In this mood he descended the declivity, and walked
disconsolately towards the shore which was on the side of the island
directly opposite to where the boat lay. He had not yet been near
enough to see the beach; but now, as he came nearer, a cry of delight
escaped him involuntarily; for there, all along the beach, and close up
to the bank, lay an immense quantity of drift-wood, which had been
brought here by the tide from all the upper waters of the bay. It was
a most heterogeneous mixture that lay before him--chips from timber
ponds, logs from ship-yards, boards from saw-mills, deals, battens,
fence posts, telegraph poles, deal ends, edgings, laths, palings,
railway sleepers, treenails, shingles, clapboards, and all the various
forms which wood assumes in a country which makes use of it as the
chief material of its manufactures. Along the countless streams that
flow into the bay, and along its far-winding shores, and along the
borders of all i