," added boy after boy, mournfully.

"I don't, see," argued Sam Ray, "why parents are never willing to own up
that some boys at least are perfectly well able to take care of
themselves."

"They might give us just one chance to prove whether we are or not,"
broke in Mif Bowers; "but they won't even do that. They just say, 'No,
and that's the end of it.' I declare it's enough to destroy all a
fellow's ambition," he added, bitterly.

The canoe club to which Tom Burgess belonged had chartered a small
steamer, that was to take them from New York to the island selected for
their encampment, leave them there and call for them again at the end of
two weeks. As the Berks boys contrasted their own prospects with those
thus outlined for their city friends, they felt more and more sorry for
themselves, and longed for the time when, with advancing years, they
should throw off the shackles of boyhood.

So the summer wore on, school closed, the first month of vacation was
passed, and as the time arrived for the canoe club to go into its
sea-side camp, the Rangers, to whom the topic was still one of constant
conversation, became more and more depressed and inclined to take gloomy
views of life in general.

Suddenly, as though by magic, everything was changed, and in a twinkling
the darkness of disappointment was dissipated by the golden light of
realized hopes. All opposition to their cherished scheme was swept away
in the space of a few hours; and while they could still hardly credit
their good-fortune, the Rangers found themselves working like beavers to
make ready for their salt-water cruise. They were to do the thing up in
a style that would beat that of the canoe boys out of sight, too. Oh! it
seemed incredible, and they had to reassure each other of their
wonderful good-fortune every time they met in order to believe in its
reality.

It all came about through their friend Admiral Marlin, who, according to
promise, visited Berks to determine its desirability as a place of
summer residence. Of course he renewed his acquaintance with Will
Rogers, and was taken to the engine-house, where he admired the
"Ranger," and met the rest of the band. Of course, too, the bluff old
sailor at once won their hearts and their confidence to such an extent
that they unfolded to him all their longings for a seafaring life, and
their recently shattered hopes in that direction.

The Admiral took their part at once, and said it was too bad; that