yards or so, he
turned round, took off his hat, and shouted--"land ho!"

"Ship ahoy!" shrieked Benjy, in an ecstasy.

"Mind your weather eye!" shouted the Captain, resuming his walk with a
facetious swagger, while, with the paddles, he increased his speed.
Soon after, he returned to land with the two geese.

"Well now, daddy," said his son, while he and Leo examined the dress
with minute interest, "I wish you'd make a clean breast of it, and let
us know how many more surprises and contrivances of this sort you've got
in store for us."

"I fear this is the last one, Benjy, though there's no end to the
applications of these contrivances. You'd better apply this one to
yourself now, and see how you get on in it."

Of course Benjy was more than willing, though, as he remarked, the dress
was far too big for him.

"Never mind that, my boy. A tight fit ain't needful, and nobody will
find fault with the cut in these regions."

"Where ever did you get it, father?" asked the boy, as the fastenings
were being secured round him.

"I got it from an ingenious friend, who says he's goin' to bring it out
soon. Mayhap it's in the shops of old England by this time. There,
now, off you go, but don't be too risky, Ben. Keep her full, and mind
your helm." (See Note.)

Thus encouraged, the eager boy waded into the water, but, in his haste,
tripped and fell, sending a volume of water over himself. He rose,
however, without difficulty, and, proceeding with greater caution, soon
walked off into deep water. Here he paddled about in a state of
exuberant glee. The dress kept him perfectly dry, although he splashed
the water about in reckless fashion, and did not return to land till
quite exhausted.

Benjamin Vane from that day devoted himself to that machine. He became
so enamoured of the "water-tramp," as he styled it--not knowing its
proper name at the time--that he went about the lakelets in it
continually, sometimes fishing, at other times shooting. He even
ventured a short distance out to sea in it, to the amazement of the
Eskimos, the orbits of whose eyes were being decidedly enlarged, Benjy
said, and their eyebrows permanently raised, by the constant succession
of astonishment-fits into which they were thrown from day to day by
their white visitors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note. Lest it should be supposed that the "pedomotive" here described
is the mere creature