ed him by both hands, and warmly expressed her
gratitude. Emily wondered that she did not kiss him. If he had saved
her, she would have kissed him twenty times. Mrs. Montague pressed his
hand, and thanked him over and over again. Then Colonel Montague took
his hand again, and expressed himself even more fully than before. The
Hon. Mr. Montague followed him, and every lady and gentleman of the
party took him by the hand, and said something exceedingly handsome; and
Bobtail began to think they were overdoing it.

"But come, my lad; you are in your wet clothes, while we are talking to
you," interposed the colonel. "You must have a dry suit."

"Never mind me, sir. I'm used to it," laughed Bobtail.

"You will catch cold."

"Catch a weasel asleep! I don't catch cold."

Colonel Montague insisted, and the sailing-master lent him a shirt and a
pair of trousers twice too big for him, and Bobtail put himself inside
of them. His bobtail coat and shoes, which had been brought from the
island, were dry, and he was in presentable condition. Grace soon
appeared, her hair nicely dried and dressed anew, wearing a white dress
and a blue sacque. She looked very pretty; but Bobtail thought that
Emily Walker was the prettier of the two. By this time dinner was ready,
and the skipper of the Skylark was invited to dine in the cabin. He did
not exactly like the idea, for he felt that he was not sufficiently
posted in the ways of genteel society to sit at the table with such
grand people.

"I'll take my grub with the hands forward, sir," said he, laughing. "I
shall feel more at home with them."

"But we shall not feel at home without you, my lad," replied Colonel
Montague. "Besides, when everybody gets cooled off, we want to talk over
the affair on the island, for I haven't even heard how Grace happened to
be in the water."

The owner of the Penobscot would not "let him up," as Bobtail expressed
it when he told his mother the story, and he was placed at the table
between Grace and Emily Walker. Chowder was served first. Bobtail kept
his "weather eye" open to see how the rest of the party did, and
adjusted his conduct by theirs. He wondered what "those towels were
stuck into the tumblers for;" but when little Miss Walker unrolled her
napkin, and placed it in her lap, and the gentlemen of the party did the
same, he followed their example.

"Now, Grace, tell me how you got overboard," said Colonel Montague, when
the soup plates were remo