Frank was fully his match, if not more, he
thought it prudent to say nothing more than: "Bah! Come on, fellows. We
can get along without him."

The group moved off; but Bert was not the only one who stayed behind.
Frank stayed too; and so did Ernest Linton. And these three sought their
amusement in another direction.

That scene very vividly impressed Bert, and over and over again he
thought to himself: "What will the boys who heard me refuse to go to the
orchard, because I am a Christian, think of me when they hear that I
have been helping to spend stolen money?"

This was the thought that troubled him most, but it was not the only
one. He felt that he could not be at ease with his beloved Sunday-school
teacher again, until he had made a full confession to him. But, oh! this
did seem so hard to do! Several Sundays passed without his being able to
make up his mind to do it. At length he determined to put it off no
longer, and one Sunday afternoon, lingering behind after the school had
been dismissed, he poured the whole story into Mr. Silver's sympathetic
ear.

Mr. Silver was evidently moved to the heart, as Bert, without sparing
himself, told of his disobedience, his concealment, and the
consequences that followed; and he had many a wise and tender word for
the boy, whose confidence in him made him proud. From that day a
peculiar fondness existed between the two, and Mr. Silver was inspired
to increased fidelity and effort in his work because of the knowledge
that one at least of his boys looked upon him with such affection and
confidence.

Once that summer had fairly come to stay, the wharves of the city became
full of fascination for the boys, and every afternoon they trooped
thither to fish for perch and tommy cods; to board the vessels lying in
their berths, and out-do one another in feats of rigging climbing; to
play glorious games of "hide-and-seek," and "I spy," in the great
cavernous warehouses, and when tired to gather around some idle sailor,
and have him stir their imagination with marvellous stories of the sea.

For none had the wharves more attraction than for Bert and Frank, and
although Mrs. Lloyd would not allow the former to go down Water Street,
where he would be far from home, she did not object to his spending an
afternoon now and then on a wharf not far from their own house. So
thither the two friends repaired at every opportunity, and fine fun they
had, dropping their well-baited hooks into