prefer you to him; namely, that you are a near neighbor to
us at Woodburn; so that in giving up my daughter to you I should feel the
parting much less than if she were about to make her home so far North as
this."

"Well, sir, that's a crumb of comfort, though to be often in her
company--seeing her lovely face and watching her pretty ways--will make it
all the more difficult to refrain from showing my esteem, admiration,
love. In fact, I don't know how to stand it. Excuse me, captain, but what
harm could there be in telling her my story and trying to win my way to
her heart, provided--I spoke of marriage only as something to be looked
for in the far-off future?"

"No, I cannot consent to that," returned the captain with decision. "It
would only put mischief into her head and rob her of her child-like
simplicity. She is still too young to know her own mind on that subject
and might fancy that she had given her heart to one who would, a few years
later, be entirely distasteful to her. But I trust you, Chester, not to
breathe a word to her of your--what shall I call it?--admiration until you
have my consent."

"It is more than admiration, sir!" exclaimed Chester. "I love her as I
never loved anything before in my life, and it would just about kill me to
see her in the possession of another."

"Then comfort yourself that for years to come no one's suit will be
listened to any more favorably than yours," returned the father of the
girl he so coveted, and with that the interview came to an end.

Their conversation had been held at one end of the deck while the rest of
the party sat chatting together at the other. The captain and Chester
joined them now and entered into the talk, which ran principally upon the
fact that all the relatives from Pleasant Plains must leave for home the
next day.

"How would you all like to go by water?" asked Captain Raymond, as if the
thought of such a possibility had just struck him.

"I do not believe the idea has occurred to any of us," replied Annis, "and
since the building of the railroad so few make the journey by water that
the boats running on our river are few, small, and I presume not
remarkably comfortable."

"How would this one answer?" he asked. "It is but thirty-eight miles
across the lake; I think we would find your river navigable nearly or
quite up to your town, and to reach it from here would not take more than
six or eight hours."

"Then they could all go, as they n