esnake, when he shrank off into a hollow of the rocks.

"I shouldn't think it very wholesome to be out so much at night!" said
Ben.

"Oh, I live on fresh air, and love it best when moist with dew!"
answered the girl.

"If it ain't moist with something stronger than dew afore long, I lose
my guess!" muttered Ben, looking upward. "If this night don't see a
reg'lar tornado, I'll give up--beat."

For a short time Ben plied his oars, casting anxious glances down the
shore, hoping to find Mrs. Harrington and her boat safe in some inlet or
cove, waiting for them.

"In course," said Ben, muttering as usual to himself. "In course, she'd
know, as I was sure to come. What on the Lord's arth is Ben Benson good
for, but to follow arter and tend on her? The king of all the Sandwich
Islands couldn't have a higher business than that, let alone a poor
feller of a boatman, as has circumwented his sea voyages down to a pair
of oars and a passenger that's not over agreeable."

"Whom are you talking to, Mr. Benson?" inquired the young lady, wasting
a smile on the moody boatman, though the threatening sky made her
somewhat anxious about her own safety.

"To an individual as calls hisself Ben Benson. He's a feller as bears
with my faults better than anybody else, as I knows on, and one as is
rather particular about being intruded on, when he's holding a private
conversation with hisself. That's the individual, Miss Agnes, as I was a
holding a council with."

"And you would a little rather have no interruption--is that it?" said
the lady. "Well, well, I can be silent, you shall see that!"

"Doubtful!" muttered Ben, using his oars with fresh vigor.

The girl he called Agnes, folded her cloak about her and settled down
among the cushions, casting wistful glances at the sky. "Look," she said
at last, pointing upward, "those small lead-colored clouds, how darkly
they drift together! Did you ever see a flock of pigeons flying over the
western woods, Mr. Benson?"

"Knew she wouldn't do it," muttered Ben, with his eyes bent on the
clouds.

"See, see!" cried the girl. "The sky is black--I have seen the same
thing!"

"But them was nothing but innocent birds a flying after something to
eat," said Ben. "These ere clouds, Miss Agnes, has got a good many
unroofed housen', and shipwrecks, and trees broken in two, and torn up
by the roots, in 'em, to say nothing of this ere boat as may be upsot
any minute."

The girl turned pale; her black