.

"A fine plan to give us all a wetting," remarked Keith.

"You go down there and work an hour or two yourself, and see how _you_
like it," answered the other, with the irrelevance produced by aching
muscles and perspiration dripping from every pore.

This conversation had taken place at the edge of the marsh where they
had brought the boat up through one of the numerous channels.

"Very well," said Keith. "But mind you, not a word about danger before
the Sister. I shall have hard enough work to persuade her to come with
us as it is."

He went back to the ridge, and carelessly suggested returning home by
water.

"You will not have to go through the thicket then," he said.

Somewhat to his surprise, Sister St. Luke consented immediately, and
followed without a word as he led the way. She was mortally afraid of
the water, but, during his absence, she had been telling her beads, and
thinking with contrition of two obstinacies in one day--that of the
thicket and that of the veil--she could not, she would not have three.
So, commending herself to all the saints, she embarked.

"Look here, Carrington, if ever you inveigle me into such danger again
for a mere fool's fancy, I will show you what I think of it. You knew
the condition of that boat, and I did not," said Keith, sternly, as the
two men stood at last on the beach in front of the lighthouse. The
Sister had gone within, glad to feel land underfoot once more. She had
sat quietly in her place all the way, afraid of the water, of the wind,
of everything, but entirely unconscious of the real danger that menaced
them. For the little craft would not mind her helm; her mast slipped
about erratically; the planking at the bow seemed about to give way
altogether; and they were on a lee shore, with the tide coming in, and
the surf beating roughly on the beach. They were both good sailors, but
it had taken all they knew to bring the boat safely to the lighthouse.

"To tell the truth, I did not think she was so crippled," said
Carrington. "She really is a good boat for her size."

"Very," said Keith sarcastically.

But the younger man clung to his opinion; and, in order to verify it, he
set himself to work repairing the little craft. You would have supposed
his daily bread depended upon her being made seaworthy, by the way he
labored. She was made over from stem to stern: a new mast, a new sail;
and, finally, scarlet and green paint were brought over from the
village,