verishness.

"I doubt they won't let you out to the beach just yet, Hal!" he said
soothingly.

"No, indeed!" said Harry, smiling brightly. "But _you_ are going to take
the ship down for me, and launch her, and all that. Bobby and Frank will
go too, of course, and the girls, if nurse can take them; and then you'll
come back and tell me all about it--won't you, Wat?"

{Harry's proposal: p39.jpg}

"Nonsense, Harry, nonsense!" cried his friend. "Why, we _couldn't_ do it
without you; it would be no fun at all. Your own ship too. No, you
needn't say another word about it."

But Harry kept to his purpose; and in time Walter felt that he was really
quite in earnest, and that to refuse would only vex him.

"Well, if you really want me to, Harry," he said reluctantly. "But won't
you be awfully dull when I take the good ship away from your room? You've
often said it was quite a companion to you when we're all out."

"Not a bit!" cried Harry bravely. "I'm quite tired of seeing the old
thing on dry land. I'm wearying awfully to know how it floats, and
you'll come home and tell me all about it. Tell me if there were people
looking on, and if the pennons looked well when they were waving out at
sea, and all that. I want to hear what everybody says about it, and if
they think the _Rover_ as fine a boat as they have ever seen at the Shelf
Rock before. So you see, Wat, you must make haste and be off with it, or
I'll be quite put out, and that will be sure to make me worse again. Ask
mamma if that isn't true! I wonder I never thought of this before. It
was awfully stupid of me, to be sure!"

His eyes sparkled brightly now, all the brighter, perhaps, because he had
just dashed away some childish tears; for he was very young, you must
remember, and also weak from illness. He wanted to make his tiny bit of
self-sacrifice right bravely and cheerfully, feeling that a grudging
manner of giving sadly mars a gift.

Mr. and Mrs. Leslie were greatly pleased at hearing what Harry had
planned for the others, especially as it had come entirely from himself.
He had certainly not been urged to do it in any way; it had not even been
suggested to him.

{The "Rover" on a trial trip: p41.jpg}

Well, a large and enthusiastic crowd of juveniles gathered round the
Shelf Rock that afternoon to watch the good ship _Rover_ make her first
voyage on the deep. And beautifully indeed did she spread her white
sails to the breeze, while, g