been repaired as well as circumstances would
permit, and in the opinion of her gallant captain she was eminently
seaworthy.

On the present occasion things bore the appearance of a voyage. Trunks
were passed on board and put below, together with coats, cloaks,
bedding, and baskets of provisions. The deck was strewn about with the
multifarious requisites of a ship's company. The Antelope, at that
time, seemed in part an emigrant vessel, with a dash of the yacht and
the coasting schooner.

In the midst of all this, two gentlemen worked their way through the
crowd to the edge of the wharf.

"Well, boys," said one, "well, captain, what's the meaning of all this?"

Captain Corbet started at this, and looked up from a desperate effort
to secure the end of one of the sails.

"Why, Dr. Porter!" said he; "why, doctor!--how d'ye do?--and Mr. Long,
too!--why, railly!"

The boys also stopped their work, and looked towards their teachers
with a little uneasiness.

"What's all this?" said Dr. Porter, looking around with a smile; "are
you getting up another expedition?"

"Wal, no," said Captain Corbet, "not 'xactly; fact is, we're kine o'
goin to take a vyge deoun the bay."

"Down the bay?"

"Yes. You see the boys kine o' want to go home by water, rayther than
by land."

"By water! Home by water!" repeated Mr. Long, doubtfully.

"Yes," said Captain Corbet; "an bein as the schewner was in good
repair, an corked, an coal-tarred, an whitewashed up fust rate, I kine
o' thought it would redound to our mootooil benefit if we went off on
sich a excursion,--bein pleasanter, cheaper, comfortabler, an every way
preferable to a land tower."

"Hem," said Dr. Porter, looking uneasily about. "I don't altogether
like it. Boys, what does it all mean?"

Thus appealed to, Bart became spokesman for the boys.

"Why, sir," said he, "we thought we'd like to go home by water--that's
all."

"Go home by water!" repeated the doctor once more, with a curious smile.

"Yes, sir."

"What? by the Bay of Fundy?"

"Yes, sir."

"Who are going?"

"Well, sir, there are only a few of us. Bruce, and Arthur, and Tom,
and Phil, and Pat, besides myself."

"Bruce and Arthur?" said the doctor; "are they going home by the Bay of
Fundy?"

"Yes, sir," said Bart, with a smile.

"I don't see how they can get to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Prince
Edward's Island from the Bay of Fundy," said the doctor, "without going
round Nova Scotia, and