om sent us each the prettiest double shell,
cedar decks, outriggers, spoon oars, and all. I tell you, they were
beauties! My uncle knows what's what in a boat, as he used to row, and
beat, too, when he was in college. He is always sending me things,
because I'm his favorite relation, and my middle name is Thomas. Lately
he gives things to Nate, because he is going to marry his sister. Before
Nate got his boat, he said he'd a million times rather have her an old
maid than have such a chap for a brother. Now, though, he's all right,
he likes his boat so much.

Mr. May made a bargain that we were to study hard for a month, and he
would give us boards and timber enough to build a boat-house. We
couldn't leave such valuable boats as the _Arrow_ and the _Edith_
out-of-doors, and Nate said the cows would _hook 'em_ if we left them in
the barn. Mick Murphy (he's Mr. May's man) did most of the carpentering,
but we boys helped. Sam Fish got so he could shingle as well as Mick,
and keep the nails in his mouth. I pounded my thumb the first day I
tried, and the biggest blood-blister I ever saw grew; so I had to give
up hammering. Sam says if he can't be a Congressman, he means to be a
first-rate shingler, and get the job of shingling all the spires in the
country. I sha'n't be that, anyway. If I can't get on better with my
arithmetic, and get to be an Admiral, I shall keep a stable, and let my
father ride my horses--regular circus horses, and calico-spotted
ones--very cheap. Sandy King (he's my chum) helped me that month over my
lessons, so I got on swimmingly. Sandy can read Latin as quick as
lightning, and knows _horse_ in eight languages, not counting pigeon
English. He's a splendid fellow, besides, and I shall never forget how
good he was to me when I came to Yarrow, and was the only Democrat,
except Mick and his family.

I painted the boat-house, because I had hurt my eyes when Sam's gun
burst when I went after a partridge. It turned out to be one of Stuffy
Wilson's hens, who lives just across the river, and I had to pay a
dollar and a half, and she only weighed four pounds. I thought I was
dead, sure, when I dropped the gun, and Mick's boy said he thought so
too. I only burned off my eye-winkers, and got some powder in my cheek.
Mr. May was awfully severe, and said I broke one of the rules of the
school. I guess he always says that when a fellow almost kills himself.
He did when Nate lassoed the pig, and she hit him. I only k