he coast, but that if we thought it would help the poor
girl to bear her trouble they were in favor of the plan. They were
really afraid she would lose her reason if she did not do something.

Corny was now staying at Mr. Darrell's house. His wife, who was a
tip-top lady, insisted that she should come there. When we went around
to talk to Corny about making a search, she said that that was exactly
what she wanted to do. If we would take her out to look for her father
and mother, and we couldn't find them after we had looked all we could,
she would come back, and ask nothing more.

Then we determined to go. We hadn't thought of taking Corny along, but
Mr. Darrell and the others thought it would be best; and Mrs. Darrell
said her own colored woman, named Celia, should go with her, and take
care of her. I could not do anything but agree to things, but Rectus
telegraphed to his father, and got authority to hire a tug; and Mr.
Parker attended to the business himself; and the tug was to be ready
early the next morning. We thought this was a long time to wait. But it
couldn't be helped.

I forgot to say that Rectus and I had telegraphed home to our parents as
soon as we reached Savannah, and had answers back, which were very long
ones for telegrams. We had also written home. But we did not say
anything to Corny about all this. It would have broken her heart if she
had thought about any one writing to his father and mother, and hearing
from them.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TRIP OF THE TUG.

The tug-boat was a little thing, and not very clean; but she was strong
and sea-worthy, we were told, and therefore we were satisfied. There was
a small deck aft, on which Corny and Rectus and I sat, with Celia, the
colored woman; and there were some dingy little sleeping-places, which
were given up for our benefit. The captain of the tug was a white man,
but all the rest, engineer, fireman and hands--there were five or six in
all--were negroes.

We steamed down the Savannah River in pretty good style, but I was glad
when we got out of it, for I was tired of that river. Our plan was to go
down the coast and try to find tidings of the boats. They might have
reached land at points where the revenue cutters would never have heard
from them. When we got out to sea, the water was quite smooth, although
there was a swell that rolled us a great deal. The captain said that if
it had been rough he would not have come out at all. This sounded