s to fall, an git a good piece down, so as to dodge Cape
Chegnecto, an there wait for the rising tide, an jest the same as ef
the sun was shinin. But we can't start till eight o'clock this evenin.
Anyhow, you needn't trouble yourselves a mite. You may all go to
sleep, an dream that the silver moon is guidin the traveller on the
briny deep."

The scene now was too monotonous to attract attention, and the boys
once more sought for some mode of passing the time. Nothing appeared
so enticing as their former occupation of fishing, and to this they
again turned their attention. In this employment the time passed away
rapidly until the summons was given for tea. Around the festive board,
which was again prepared by Solomon with his usual success, they
lingered long, and at length, when they arose, the tide was high. It
was now about eight o'clock in the evening, and Captain Corbet was all
ready to start. As the tide was now beginning to turn, and was on the
ebb, the anchor was raised, and the schooner, yielding to the pressure
of the current, moved away from her anchorage ground. It was still
thick, and darkness also was coming on. Not a thing could be
discerned, and by looking at the water, which moved with the schooner,
it did not seem as though any motion was made.

"That's all your blindness," said the captain, as they mentioned it to
him. "You can't see anything but the water, an as it is movin with us,
it doesn't seem as though we were movin. But we air, notwithstandin,
an pooty quick too. I'll take two hours' drift before stoppin, so as
to make sure. I calc'late about that time to get to a place whar I can
hit the current that'll take me, with the risin tide, up to old
Petticoat Jack."

"By the way, captain," said Phil, "what do you seafaring men believe
about the origin of that name--Petitcodiac? Is it Indian or French?"

"'Tain't neither," said Captain Corbet, decidedly. "It's good English;
it's 'Petticoat Jack;' an I've hearn tell a hundred times about its
original deryvation. You see, in the old French war, there was an
English spy among the French, that dressed hisself up as a woman, an
was familiarly known, among the British generals an others that emply'd
him, as 'Petticoat Jack.' He did much to contriboot to the defeat of
the French; an arter they were licked, the first settlers that went up
thar called the place, in honor of their benefacture, 'Petticoat Jack;'
an it's bore that name ever se