re Paget, who wished to put Dan Pickley,
a village idler, in the place, but the bridge board overruled him, and Mrs.
Nelson was appointed to fill her husband's situation--every one knowing
that Ralph was to do the work.

The pay was not large--only six dollars per week--but, as the Nelsons had
no rent to pay, they managed to get along quite comfortably. There was a
vegetable garden attached to the cottage, and during his spare time Ralph
worked in this. His mother also took in sewing, and they had now saved
sixty dollars for a rainy day.

Westville and Eastport were situated on the two sides of a narrow channel
which united Big Silver Lake, sometimes called Keniscot Lake, on the north
with Silver Lake on the south. The upper lake was several miles long, while
the lower sheet of water, which emptied into the Ramapo River at
Chambersburgh, was less than half the size.

Westville had always been a backward town, due mostly to the
short-sightedness of Squire Paget, Mr. Hooker, the postmaster, and other
narrow-minded leading men, who never saw fit to offer any inducements to
manufacturers and others to locate there. The village consisted of
half-a-dozen stores, a blacksmith shop, a tavern, and less than
seventy-five houses. There was one hat factory there, but this was closed
more than half the time.

Eastport, on the other hand, was booming. It had two hat factories, three
planing mills, a furniture works and a foundry. There were several blocks
of stores, lit up at night by electric lights, and several hundred houses.
Real estate, too, was advancing rapidly.

The Nelsons had owned their cottage and the land upon which it stood for
many years, but a year previous to the building of the bridge Mr. Nelson
had added nearly half an acre to his ground, purchasing it very cheaply
from a fellow-boatman, who had left Westville and struck out for some place
in the West. This was the ground which was now in dispute. The papers in
reference to it were missing, and as the sale had never been recorded, it
was likely that Mrs. Nelson and Ralph would have much trouble in obtaining
their rights.

CHAPTER II.

THE SMASH AT THE BRIDGE.

During the conversation recorded above, Ralph had been at work in the
dooryard of the cottage, while his mother was busy tying up the honeysuckle
vines which grew over the porch. It was a bright summer day, with a stiff
breeze blowing from the southwest.

"There's a sloop coming up Silver L