-night,
Chippy,' said Dick.

Chippy grunted in a dissatisfied fashion. The Raven was very keen on
doing the trip for the smallest possible outlay of money. It seemed to
him so much more scoutlike to live on the country, as they were fond of
saying, and to pay for shelter did not seem to be playing the game.

Dick nodded. 'I know what you mean,' he said, for he had quite
understood Chippy's grunt. 'But we're bound to make Newminster, and
send off a card to show we've been in the town.'

'O' course,' said the Raven.

'And then it will be rather late to start off again and strike for the
open country to search for a camping-place.'

'Right, Dick--quite right,' rejoined his comrade; 'the wust of it is as
lodgin's cost money.'

'Needn't cost ye a single copper this night, anyhow,' said a voice in
their ears, and the scouts jumped. Mrs. Slade had come up unseen, and
had caught the last words of the Raven.

'Here y' are,' she went on, and pointed to the snug little cabin;
'that's yourn to-night if ye want it.'

'But you'll need it for yourselves,' cried Dick.

'Not this night,' she replied. 'I've got a married darter in
Newminster. She've a-married a wharfinger in a good way o' business.
Such a house as she've got! Upstairs, downstairs, an' a back-kitchen.'

Mrs. Slade visibly swelled in importance as she described her
daughter's palatial surroundings. No doubt they seemed very extensive
indeed after one small cabin. 'An' 'tis settled we stay wi' her
to-night, so the cabin 'ere will be empty, an' ye're as welcome to it
as can be.'

The scouts' eyes glistened, and they were easily induced to accept the
kindly offer, and so they glided on their way towards the town,
chatting together like old friends. Mrs. Slade pulled up for a moment
at the ash plantation, and Chippy sprang out with the tomahawk. In
five minutes he was back with a tough, straight ash-stick, which he
trimmed and whittled with his knife as they made the last mile into the
city.

At the wharf where the barge was to lie for the night they met Mr.
Slade, a short, thick-set man, with a short, broad face between a fur
cap and a belcher handkerchief. He was to the full as good-natured as
his wife, and cordially re-echoed her invitation for the scouts to
sleep in their cabin. The wharfinger's house was near at hand, so that
the owners of the barge would not be far away.

The scouts stowed their haversacks and staves away in the cabin of th