hip was at anchor in Brockway
harbor, ready to receive her juvenile crew.

CHAPTER II.

THE YOUNG AMERICA.

With Mr. Lowington, the Academy Ship, which was the name he usually
applied to the idea he had matured, and thus far carried into effect,
was not a speculation; he did not intend to see how much money could be
made by the scheme. It was an experiment in the education of rich men's
sons, for only rich men could pay for scholarships in such an expensive
institution.

The Brockway Academy was to be continued, under the management of a
board of trustees. An accomplished teacher had been selected by Mr.
Lowington, and the school, under its present administration, was in a
highly prosperous condition. Only ten of its pupils had been transferred
to the Academy Ship, for it required no little nerve on the part of
parents to send their sons to school on the broad ocean, to battle with
the elements, to endure the storms of the Atlantic, and to undergo the
hardships which tender mothers supposed to be inseparably connected with
a life on shipboard.

For six months Mr. Lowington had studied upon his plan, and it was
hardly matured when the new ship came to anchor in Brockway harbor.
During this period he had visited the principal cities of the Northern
States, those of the southern section being closed against his
operations by the war of the rebellion then raging at the height of its
fury. He had interested his friends in his bold enterprise, and boys
with, whom the experiment was to be inaugurated were gathered from all
parts of the country.

The securing of the requisite number of pupils was the first success,
and what he had regarded as the most difficult part of the enterprise.
More than half of them had been obtained before it was deemed prudent to
lay the keel of the ship. The details of the plan had been carefully
considered during the winter, and when the ship was moored at Brockway,
the organization of the school, its rules and regulations had all been
written out. The boys began to arrive about the first of March, and by
the first of April all of them, eighty-seven in number, were on board.

Mr. Lowington was naturally very anxious for the success of his
experiment, and for months he had labored with unceasing diligence in
perfecting his plan, and carrying it into operation. In this occupation
he had found the activity he needed; and he may not be blamed for
believing, all the time, that he was lab