cker was sitting on the end of the pier, smoking his pipe,
when Daisy came along.

'Fine day for a sail, Missie,' he said, and indeed the dancing blue
waters of the bay looked most inviting.

Then Daisy poured out her troubles, and the old man shook his head in
sympathy.

'I wonder now if you would be allowed to come along with me in my little
sailing-boat?' he suggested.

'Do you mean it?' Daisy cried. 'Oh, you good old Steve! I will run home
and ask Mother this minute.'

'Right you are, Miss Daisy! and I will just go down and put the _Mary
Jane_ ship-shape.'

Daisy soon came flying back, having gained the desired permission.

Soon the little boat was dancing over the waves. The breeze filled the
sail, and they made such speed that the houses on the shore fast
dwindled behind them. Old Steve showed Daisy how to manage the sail and
then gave her a lesson in steering. At first the sail slackened and the
boat wobbled a little, but his pupil soon grew clever at keeping the
head to the wind and steering a straight course.

'Oh, I am enjoying myself!' she cried. 'This is ever so much better than
going with the boys, because they always want to manage the sail and the
steering, and I never have a chance of learning anything.'

'Well, Missy, you shall come out sailing with me a few times, and I will
soon teach you all there is to know about a boat.'

'And then they will not be able to refuse to take me because I am no
good, will they?'

'No fear, Missy! You will soon know as much as the young gentlemen--and
I do believe that is their boat just ahead.'

'So it is,' cried Daisy, in great excitement. 'Now we will race them,
Steve, and give them a surprise.'

'Ship ahoy!' called Daisy as they flew past, and her brothers were
indeed astonished to see their sister steering the boat like any old
salt. After that they never said that a girl was 'a bit in the way.'

[Illustration: "Daisy soon grew clever at keeping the head to the
wind."]

[Illustration: ON A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.]

[Illustration: "She managed to drag her on shore."]

THE GIRL WHO DID NOT RUN AWAY.

A little French girl only seven years old, named Eudoxie, was playing
with tiny Philomene in a field, when the young child made two stains on
her pink pinafore.

'Mother will scold,' thought the little maid, and trotted off to the
river to wash them out.

A plank stretched out from the bank to make it easy for people to draw
water, and on t