Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/33

 was principally through his friends, that is, through his sail-boat, his shell in which he used to train for his races, his canvas canoe that had carried him safely down the most difficult rapids in Indian River, and finally through me. In fact, I became a regular shuttle-cock of fortune, and was so roughly knocked about from pillar to post, that it is a wonder to me that I am as good a rod as I am.

After a few minutes' walk along a quiet street shaded on each side by grand old trees, Joe and his companion turned into a wide carriage-way which led them by a circuitous route through a little grove of evergreens to the house in which Joe lived a fine brick mansion, with stone facings, a carriage-porch at the side door, and a croquet ground and lawn tennis court in front. Behind the house the grounds sloped gently down to the shore of a beautiful lake, with an island near the center, and with banks on each side that were thickly wooded, save where the trees and undergrowth had been cleared away to make room for the cozy summer residences of the visitors who came there every year. For Mount Airy, that was the