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 "How abominably careless of me!" he exclaimed, appreciating that every thing must be at a completer stand-still because of this loss. He could not find another boat about the Probasco's dock nor stored in the one or two deposits of miscellanies, nautical and agricultural.

"We've got to wait, with a vengeance!" he said to himself. Curiosity as to his hosts gave place to angry impatience at his having taken things so for granted and at his own heedlessness; came, too, greater anxiety for Mr. Marcy's and Mr. Saxton's enlightenment. "They may have had our funerals, Towzer; given us both up for dead!" he exclaimed, addressing the attentive representative of the absent farm-house folk. Towzer seemed resolved that nothing should be done without his notice, and trotted at Touchtone's heels every-where.

He was dismayed when he crossed the threshold of the farm-house. Gerald had gone back to bed with a throbbing headache and what Philip rightly judged would prove a fever. It gained perceptibly. By noon the younger boy was tossing in a restlessness that hinted at coming delirium. Now and then, as he dreamed, he muttered to imaginary people, or, awakened