forever, and I couldn't rest with three flighty lads in a boat with
a sail _and_ an engine."

Mrs. McAdam always expected to be obeyed. Her personality was such that
she generally was; but always, when disobedience followed, it was hidden
from her immediate attention, and she was never one to show the weakness
of watching to see her orders carried out. That was why she, of all the
people in the little village, did not realize that her boys often drank
more than was good for them--always managed, by clever devices, to escape
her eye.

"A glass of harmless stuff now and again," she would say with a toss of
her head; "what's that but a proof of the lads' self-control? That's what
I'm a-telling you: make your lads strong and self-respecting."

Tom did not take the sail from the boat that day, neither did he expect
to use it. He furled it close and shipped it carefully, but it was late,
and, in the last hurry, he kept his mother's caution in mind, but did not
carry out her command. Then Sandy, when they were about to start, did a
bold thing. Stealing into the bar, he took a bottle of whisky and a
bottle of brandy; these he hid under his reefer, and, with a laugh at his
own cunning, put into the empty places on the shelves two partly filled
bottles, and ran to the wharf.

Mary McAdam waved them a farewell from the steps. She had packed the
hamper and stowed it under the very sail she had ordered off. In the
excitement of preparation she overlooked it entirely.

"You, Sandy, see to it that you buy a suit that you won't repent when the
winter nips you!" she called.

"And you, Tom, get a quiet colour and _no_ checks! When yer last year's
suit shrank and the squares got crooked ye looked like a damaged
checker-board!"

Jerry-Jo McAlpin from his seat in the stern roared with laughter at this,
and just then the sturdy little engine puffed, thudded, and "caught on,"
and off went the three with loud words of good-bye.

The Channel was as smooth as a summer brook, and the launch shot ahead.

"It's a bit chilly," Sandy said as they neared the mouth opening at
Flying Point into the Little Bay.

"Put on your storm coat," cautioned Tom, "and you, too, Jerry-Jo; we'll
get the wind when we pass Dreamer's Rock and strike the Big Bay."

The boys got out their coats and put them on, and then Sandy said:

"See what I've got! Snitched it from under the mother's eye, too!" He
held up the bottles. Tom laughed, but Jerry-Jo reached out