own, and go cruising everywhere, and have storms and--and--hurricanes,
you know."

"Why shouldn't you do it this summer?" asked Uncle John. "If you want to
cruise in a craft of your own, you shall do it; that is, if your father
doesn't object. A schooner would be a little too big for a boy of
thirteen, but you and two or three other fellows might make a splendid
cruise in a row-boat. You could have a mast and sail, and you could take
provisions and things, and cruise from Harlem all the way up into the
lakes in the Northern woods. It would be all the same as piracy, except
that you would not be committing crimes, and making innocent people
wretched."

"Uncle John, it would be just gorgeous! We'd have a gun, and a lot of
fishing-lines, and we could live on fish and bears. There's bears in the
woods, you know."

"You won't find many bears, I'm afraid; but you would have to take a
gun, and you might possibly find a wild-cat or two. Who is there that
would go with you?"

"Oh, there's Tom Schuyler, and Joe and Jim Sharpe; and there's Sam
McGrath--though he'd be quarrelling all the time. Maybe Charley Smith's
father would let him go. He is a first-rate fellow. You'd ought to see
him play base-ball once!"

"Three boys besides yourself would be enough. If you have too many,
there will be too much risk of quarrelling. There is one thing you must
be sure of--no boy must go who can't swim."

"Oh, all the fellows can swim, except Bill Town. He was pretty near
drowned last summer. He'd been bragging about what a stunning swimmer he
was, and the boys believed him; so one day one of the fellows shoved him
off the float, where we go in swimming at our school, and he thought he
was dead for sure. The water was only up to his neck, but he couldn't
swim a stroke."

"Well, if you can get three good fellows to go with you--boys that you
know are not young scamps, but are the kind of boys that your father
would be willing to have you associate with--I'll give you a boat and a
tent, and you shall have a better cruise than any pirate ever had; for
no real pirate ever found any fun in being a thief and a murderer. You
go and see Tom and the Sharpe boys, and tell them about it. I'll see
about the boat as soon as you have chosen your crew."

"You are quite sure that your plan is a good one?" asked Mr. Wilson, as
the boy vanished, with sparkling eyes, to search for his comrades.
"Isn't it very risky to let the boys go off by themselves