er.

"Is that your dog?" asked the collector of tickets of the

Captain, as the retriever darted ahead in a great hurry. "That your
dog, sir?"

"No," replied the old sailor, "not exactly--why?"

"Because, if he is, he'll have to have a ticket the same as the rest,"
said the man. "Dogs is half-price, like children."

"Oh, I didn't know," cried the Captain apologetically, as he put his
hand in his pocket and paid Rover's fare, adding in a low voice to Mrs
Gilmour, while they were ascending the steps from the landing-stage to
the pier above, "I do believe that rascal thought I meant to cheat him
and smuggle the dog through without paying, the fellow looked at me so
suspiciously."

"Perhaps he did," replied she laughing. "You know you are a very
suspicious-looking gentleman."

"Humph!" he chuckled. "I think Rover intended to do him, though. He
squeezed himself past my legs very artfully!"

"He did, the naughty dog," said Nellie, who, with Bob, had been much
amused by the little incident. "He's always doing it in London at the
railway-stations whenever we go by the underground line; and papa says
he wants to cheat the company. He comes after us sometimes, and jumps
into the railway-carriage where we are, when we think him miles away and
safe at home! Did you ever hear of such a thing, aunt Polly?"

"No, dearie," she answered as they all stepped out briskly along the
rather shaky suspension bridge connecting the pier with the shore, which
oscillated under their feet in a way that made Mrs Gilmour anxious to
get off it as quickly as she could to firm ground. "Rover is a clever
fellow, sure!"

"He's a very artful dog!" observed the Captain, whereat Rover wagged his
tail, as if he understood what he said and appreciated the
compliment--"a very artful dog!"

Arrived on shore, presently, the children were in ecstasies at all they
saw; for, by only crossing the roadway opposite the land end of the
shaky bridge, they at once found themselves within the outlying
shrubbery and brushwood of Priory Park, which the kindly proprietor
freely threw open for years to the public, without post or paling
interfering with their enjoyment, until the vandalism and vulgarity of
some cockney excursionists, who wrought untold destruction to the
property, led to the rescinding of this privilege!

Although touching the sea, the waters of which lapped its turf at high
tide, when once within the park, it seemed to Bob and Nellie a