ed Tom Rush.

"Probably, as they didn't sleep any last night, they have gone to bed
at the hotel," I replied. "It will be a good joke for them, when they
wake up, to find they have had their labor for their pains."

On the steamboat wharf there was a building used for the storage of
goods. Just as I was about to go down the steps at the foot of which
the Splash lay, with the row-boats made fast to her, a lame man came
out of the warehouse, and hailed us.

"What do you want?" he demanded, in no conciliatory tones.

"I want this boat," I replied.

"You can't have her," he added, decidedly.

"Why not?"

"Because you can't."

"That doesn't seem to be a very good reason," I answered, descending
the steps, and jumping into the Splash.

"Do you hear what I say?" demanded he, in savage tones.

"I do; I am not deaf, and you speak loud enough to be heard," I added,
as I proceeded to remove the stops from the mainsail, preparatory to
hoisting the sail.

"Are you going to mind what I say, or not?" he shouted, in loud tones.

"I am not."

"That boat's in my charge, and you can't have her."

"I don't care whose charge she is in. The boat belongs to me, and I
intend to have her."

"Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am; but I take it any one has a right to his
own property, wherever he finds it."

"Can you prove that the boat is your property?" asked he, in a milder
tone.

"I can, but I shall not take the trouble to do so," I replied, with
more impudence than discretion.

"All I've got to say is, that you can't have that boat," added he,
angrily; and he came down the steps, and took position by my side in
the Splash.

"Come aboard, fellows!" I called to my companions.

"I suppose you claim these row-boats too--don't you?" said the lame
man, with a sneer.

"I do not," I answered, concluding, under the circumstances, to go no
farther than the facts would warrant. "Those boats belong to the
Parkville Liberal Institute."

"I know they do," growled the man, who seemed to be in doubt what to
do.

"Hoist the jib, Tom. If you wish to land, sir, now is your time," I
suggested to the intruder, as I picked up the heavy oak tiller of the
Splash.

"What are you going to do with that tiller?" continued he, fixing his
eye fiercely upon me.

"I am going to steer the boat with it," I replied. "If you wish to go
with us, I shall not object to your company."

I saw that the man only wished me to bully and thre