Has Solon taken good care of you? Here are some
clothes that, I guess, you will have to make the best of until your own
can be dried. They probably won't come within a mile of fitting, but
clothing does not make the man, you know, and we are not very critical
as to appearances aboard the _Whatnot_. By-the-way, my name is
Fifield--Aleck Fifield. What did you say yours was?"

"I don't think I said," answered the boy, slipping into a woollen shirt
many sizes too large for him; "but it is Winn."

"Winn, eh? Good name. Belong to the Massachusetts Winns?"

"My parents came from there, but I was born in Wisconsin."

"Yes, yes. Just so. But, there! I musn't hinder you. Supper is
ready, and if you haven't any better place to go to, we should be most
happy to have you join us."

"Thank you, sir," replied Winn. "I shall be only too glad to do so,
for I haven't had any supper, and the raft to which I belong has
probably gone off down the river without me."

"So you belong to a raft, eh? And what happened? Did you tumble
overboard from it?"

"No, sir. I came to this island in the skiff, and was trying to make a
line fast, when the skiff got away from me."

"And they didn't notice it through the gloom until it was too late to
do anything, and so you got left! Yes, yes. I see just how it all
happened! Such accidents are of common occurrence on the river, and
you were very fortunate to find us here. I shall be delighted to have
you for a guest tonight, and in the morning your friends will
undoubtedly return to look for you."

As he thus rattled on in cheery fashion, Cap'n Cod gathered up Winn's
wet clothing, preparatory to taking them to the galley to be dried.
Not finding either coat or shoes in the water-soaked pile, he inquired
if the boy had left the raft without them.

"No, sir," replied Winn; "but I took them off, and left them in the
skiff."

"You did! That's bad; for when your friends find the skiff with your
clothes in it, they will be apt to imagine you are drowned. Then
they'll search the river below here for your body, instead of coming
back to look for you. Never mind, though," he added quickly, mistaking
the expression of relief which this suggestion brought to Winn's face
for one of dismay, "we'll soon relieve their anxiety. We'll get a
mule, and put him in here as quick as our show earns his price. Then
we'll go humming down the river faster than any raft that ever drifted.
We may b