Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/160

 they found themselves in the boat-house, where Joe and his two friends were waiting for them.

"I saw you coming and took the cover off one of my pets so that you could take a look at her," said the former, directing the attention of his visitors to a neat cedar shell in which he had been wont to win honors before he became a convert to canoeing. "She has taken me first by the judges' boat in more than one hotly-contested race while I was going to school at Dartmouth Academy. Handsome, isn't she? No doubt you will be surprised to hear me say it, but there is something that I think more of than I do of her."

As Joe said this, he pointed toward an ungainly looking object which lay on the floor at the further end of the boat-house. It was a canvas canoe, whose battered sides bore evidence to numerous encounters with sharp-pointed rocks and snags.

"It must be on account of its associations," replied Loren, looking first at the clumsy canoe and then at the clear-cut lines of the shell. "If I had my choice between the two,