dow of the
state-room had a drowsy sound, and--and Wort's head gave a sudden fall. He
opened his eyes, and said, "This won't do; I mustn't go to sleep," But the
wind continued to hum its drowsy tune as if saying, "Go to sleep, go to
sleep, tired boy, tired boy; there, there!" Wort's head rose and fell
several times, and each time he made a remonstrance. But the remonstrances
were feebler one after the other, his eyes refused to open, and there in
the captain's state-room was a boy fast asleep!

It was the latter part of the afternoon, and one of the men at work on the
new vessel came to Wort's father, and said, "Cap'n, shall we let the
schooner lie off in the stream to-night, or do you take her to her wharf?"

"No chance for her at the wharf, and she must stay here till Monday, and I
don't think any one need stay with her and watch. She is so heavily
anchored she can't very well run away. We will all leave. But where is my
boy?"

"I think, cap'n, I see a boy like him going off with your brother."

"All right. My brother Nathan was here, and he will look after Wort. Now
we will go."

When Skipper Wentworth reached home his wife told him that "Nathan" had
said something about taking Wort home with him to spend a day or two at
his farm, three miles away.

"Then Wort has gone with Nathan, wife?"

"I think he must have, as he has not come home."

"He is with Nathan. All right."

The good folks went to bed, and nobody told them where Wort was. The
little waves rippling about the schooner may have known, and a bright,
inquisitive star looking in at the cabin window may have known, but
neither wave nor star told the secret. Toward morning Wort woke up. Where
was he? He put out his hands expecting to feel the soft feather pillow
that Mother Wentworth daily laid upon his bed. It was only a hard board
that he felt above him and back of him. Where was he? He rubbed his eyes
wide open, and little by little it came to him that he was in the cabin of
the schooner. What if the vessel should break away from her moorings and
drift off to sea? What if it had gone already, and this craft with a crew
of one were actually on her voyage? His heart thumped hard in his fright.
He crawled out of the cabin, making his way along as well as he could over
pieces of board, running into a carpenter's saw-horse provokingly left in
the door-way, and stroking his legs, he stepped outside. The wind from the
water swept cool across the vessel. Wh