nt that "the independent excursion without running
away" was a success.

"Ah! so you have picked up those two young gentlemen, who ran away,"
added the head steward, glancing at Scott and Laybold.

"Not exactly, sir; they picked us up," answered the coxswain.

"I think it was a mutual picking up, and we picked each other up,"
laughed Scott. "We knew that Sanford and his crew were extremely
anxious to find the ship's company, and if we joined them we should be
sure to come out right."

"Exactly so," laughed Mr. Blaine. "Let me see; after our first day's
run on shore, by some mistake you neglected to come on board at night,
with the others."

"That was the case exactly. The fact is, we were too drunk to go on
board with the others."

"Drunk!" exclaimed Mr. Blaine.

"Such was our melancholy condition, sir," added Scott, shaking his
head. "We were invited, in a restaurant, to drink 'finkel,' and not
knowing what finkel was, we did drink; and it boozed us exceedingly."

"You are very honest about it, Scott."

"We are about everything, sir. We slept at a hotel, and when we went
down to the wharf to go on board, we learned that the ship's company
had gone to Trolldoldiddledy Falls. As we felt pretty well, we thought
we would take a train, see a little of the inside of Sweden, and meet
the ship's company at Squozzlebogchepping."

"Where's that?" asked Mr. Blaine.

"I can't give you the latitude and longitude of the jaw-breaker, but
it was at the junction of the two railways, where the party came down
from the canal. We were sure we should find our fellows there, but
the Swedish figures bothered us, and we made a mistake in the hour the
train was due."

"But the Swedish figures are the same as ours," suggested the head
steward.

"Are they? Well, I don't know what the matter was, except that we were
five minutes too late for the train. That's what's the matter."

"How very unfortunate it was you lost that train!"

"It was, indeed; I couldn't have felt any worse if I had lost my
great-grandmother, who died fifty years before I was born. These
honest fellows felt bad, too."

"Of course they did."

"We took the next train to Gottenburg; but when we arrived, the ship
had sailed for Copenhagen, which I was more anxious to see than any
other place in Northern Europe."

"And for that reason you came on to Stockholm."

"No, sir; you are too fast, Mr. Blaine. Your consequent does not agree
with the antecedent. Th