nt for a row, and the tide took us down,
and then the fog came on and we got lost."

"I expected better of you," Grimstone said angrily. "Foggy, indeed!
I've been anxious and worried all day. I did think as you warn't like
other boys, but could be trusted, and then you go and play such a
prank as this. Well, go in; your mother is in a nice taking about
you."

"My dear mother," George said as he ran in, "I am so sorry you have
been uneasy about us, awfully sorry; but really it hasn't been our
fault altogether."

"Never mind that now, George," Mrs. Andrews said, throwing her arms
round his neck. "Fortunately I did not know anything about it till Mr.
Grimstone came in a few minutes ago. I had been expecting you in for
some little time, but I supposed the steamer was late, and I was not
at all uneasy till Mr. Grimstone came in and said that he had not
seen either of you since the steamer got to Gravesend, and that you
had not come back with the rest. Is Bill with you?"

"Yes, mother; he is at the door talking to Bob."

"Ask Mr. Grimstone to come in again," Mrs. Andrews said. "He has been
most kind, and he had promised to go down to Gravesend by the first
train in the morning if you did not come home to-night, and to make
inquiries about you there. He tried to cheer me up by saying that as
you were together nothing could very well happen to you and that
probably you had only got into some boyish scrape--perhaps, he
suggested, only gone out into the country and had helped yourselves to
some apples, and had so got locked up."

Bob, however, would not come in again, but went off saying he would
hear all about it in the morning, but would go off to tell his wife at
once that they had returned safely, for "that she was in such a worry
as never was."

Hearing that the boys had had nothing to eat since two o'clock, Mrs.
Andrews at once laid the table for supper; and when they had finished
it listened to George's account of their adventure.

"You had a very narrow escape, boys," she said when they had finished.
"You might have been swept out to sea, or run down by a steamer in the
fog. I hope to-night that you will neither of you forget to thank God
for his protection through the danger you have run; and I do hope, my
dear boys, that you will be more careful in future."

The next evening, after work was over, George went in to Bob
Grimstone's and told them all that had happened. When the story was
told, Bob agreed that a