minutes they were landed.

"How much time have we yet?" asked Bart, "before high tide?"

"O, you've got fifteen or twenty minutes," said Captain Corbet.

"Hurrah, boys! Come along," said Bart; and leading the way, he went
straight to the office.

As he approached it he uttered suddenly a cry of joy.

"What's the matter, Bart?"

Bart said nothing, but hurried forward, and the astonished boys saw him
shaking hands very vigorously with a gentleman who seemed like the
chief man on the place. He was an old acquaintance, evidently. In a
few minutes all was explained. As the boys came up, Bart introduced
them as his friends, and they were all warmly greeted; after which the
gentleman said,--

"Why, what a crowd of you there is! Follow me, now. There's plenty of
room for you, I imagine, in a ship of fifteen hundred tons; and you've
just come in time."

With these words he hurried off, followed by all the boys. He led the
way up an inclined plane which ran up to the bows of the ship, and on
reaching this place they went along a staging, and finally, coming to a
ladder, they clambered up, and found themselves on the deck of the ship.

"I must leave you now, Bart, my boy," said the gentleman; "you go to
the quarter-deck and take care of yourselves. I must go down again."

"Who in the world is he, Bart?" asked the boys, as they all stood on
the quarter-deck.

"Was there ever such luck!" cried Bart, joyously. "This is the ship
Sylph, and that is Mr. Watson, and he has built this ship for my
father. Isn't it odd that we should come to this place at this
particular time?"

"Why, it's as good as a play."

"Of course it is. I've known Mr. Watson all my life, and he's one of
the best men I ever met with. He was as glad to see me as I was to see
him."

But now the boys stopped talking, for the scene around them began to
grow exciting. In front of them was the settlement, and in the yard
below was a crowd who had assembled to see the launch. Behind them was
the broad expanse of the Petitcodiac River, beyond which lay the
opposite shore, which went back till it terminated in wooded hills.
Overhead arose the masts, adorned with a hundred flags and streamers.
The deck showed a steep slope from bow to stern. But the scene around
was nothing, compared with the excitement of suspense, and expectation.
In a few minutes the hammers were to sound. In a few minutes the
mighty fabric on which they were standing would