the little girls looked at Amos.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Amanda. "We can't ever get back to
shore."

CHAPTER VIII

ON THE ISLAND

Amos made no answer to his sister's frightened exclamation. He was well
used to the harbor, as he often went fishing with his father, and had been
on cruises of several days. Tide and wind both took the boat swiftly
toward Long Point, a low, narrow sand-beach, which ran out into the
harbor.

"We'll run straight into Long Point if the wind don't change," said Amos.

Anne had held fast to her line and now felt it tugging strongly in her
grasp.

"I've caught something!" she exclaimed, "and I don't believe I can ever
pull it in."

Amos reached across and seized the line. "Gee!" he exclaimed, "I'll bet
it's a cod," and he pulled valiantly. It took all the boy's strength to
get the big fish into the boat. "I'll bet it weighs ten pounds," declared
Amos proudly, quite forgetting in his pleasure over the big fish that the
boat was still moving swiftly away from the settlement.

"Amos, Amos, just see how fast we are going," said Amanda; "we'll be
carried right out to sea."

"Well, then some vessel will pick us up and bring us back," answered her
brother, "but it looks now as if we would bring up on Long Point, and we
can walk home from there easy enough. It's only a couple of miles."

"Perhaps we could get home before they missed us," suggested Anne,
hopefully.

Amos nodded; he was still busy with the big fish, but in a few moments he
began to look anxiously ahead.

"The wind's pulling round to the southeast," he said. "I guess we sha'n't
hit Long Point after all."

"We're going right into Wood End," declared Amanda, "or else to House
Point Island. Oh, Amos, if we land on that island nobody will ever find
us."

"It will be better to land anywhere than to be carried beyond Race Point,"
said Amos; "the wind is growing stronger every minute."

The three children no longer felt any interest in their fish-lines. Amos
had drawn his line in when they started off from shore, and Amanda had let
go of hers when the first oar was lost. Anne was the only one who had kept
a firm hold on her line, and now she drew it in and coiled it carefully
around the smooth piece of wood to which it was fastened.

"I'll get this boat ashore some way," declared Amos boldly; "if we run
near any land I'll jump overboard with the painter and pull the dory to
shore. I'll get up in the bow