elf, all dripping with water and
mud, upon the bank.

"Why, you came near being drowned," said Harry, anxiously.

"No I didn't," answered Tony, pulling a big bunch of weeds and rubbing
his legs with them "I kin swim well enough, but a fellar has a rough
time in the water with big boots on and his pockets full o' buck-shot."

"Couldn't you empty the shot out?" asked Harry.

"And lose it all?" asked Tony, with an aggrieved expression upon his
watery face.

"But how did it happen?" Harry earnestly inquired. "What were you doing
in the boat?"

Tony did not immediately answer. He rubbed at his legs, and then he
tried to wipe his face with his wet coat-sleeve, but finding that only
made matters worse, he accepted Harry's offer of his handkerchief, and
soon got his countenance into talking order.

"Why, you see," said he, "I kept on up the creek till I got opposite
John Walker's cabin, where it's narrow, and there's a big tree a-lyin'
across--"

"Still following that thing?" interrupted Harry.

"Yes," said Tony; "an' then I got over on the tree and kep' down the
creek--"

"Still following?" asked Harry.

"Yes; and I got a long ways down, and had one bad tumble, too, in a
dirty little gully; and it was pretty nigh day when I turned to come
back. An' then when I got up here I thought I would look fur John
Walker's boat--fur I knew he kept it tied up somewhere down this
way--and save myself all that walk. I found the ole boat--"

"And how did it upset?" said Harry.

"Humph!" said Tony; "easy enough. I hadn't nuthin to row with but a bit
o' pole, and I got a sorter cross a-gettin' along so slow, and so I
stood up and gin a big push, and one foot slipped, an' over she went."

"And in you went!" said Harry.

"Yes--in I went. I don't see what ever put John Walker up to makin'
sich a boat as that. It's jist the meanest, lopsidedest, low-borndedst
boat I ever did see."

"I don't wonder you think so," said Harry, laughing; "but if I were you,
I'd go home as soon as I could, and get some dry clothes."

"That's so," said Tony, rising; "these feel like the inside of an
eelskin."

"Oh, Tony!" said Harry as they walked along up the creek, "did you find
out what that thing was?"

"Yes, I did," answered Tony.

"And what was it?"

"It was Captain Caseby."

"Captain Caseby?" cried Harry.

"Yes; jist him, and nuthin' else. It was his head we seen agin the sky,
as he was a-walkin' on the other side of that little ri