welve; we want you with us."

"But I can't go."

"Yes you can; why not?"

"I have to attend to my business."

"You can afford to take a vacation of a week or two, I should think."

Paul shook his head. He was delighted with the idea, and would have been
very glad to go, but he could not think of neglecting his business to go
away upon a pleasure excursion.

"You must go, Paul; the fellows all want you to go, and we shall have a
first-rate time."

"I have no doubt you will; and I should be very glad to go with you if I
could; but it is of no use for me to think of such a thing."

"It is not fully decided that we are to go yet; but Captain Littleton
and my father have consented to let us have the Flyaway. We shall know
all about it next week."

Paul continued his walk, but the project of the excursion in the Flyaway
haunted his imagination, and it required a great deal of self-denial for
him to forego the anticipated pleasure. He felt that the summer season
was the harvest time of his business, and he could not afford to waste a
week or two in idle play. "Little by Little," was his motto, and he was
not willing that any of those "littles" should slip through his fingers.

When they went down in the Fawn the next day, he told John about the
excursion, and that he had been invited to form one of the party.

"But I can't afford to go," he added.

"Why not? It won't cost you anything."

"I shall lose my time, for the Fawn will lie idle at her moorings while
I am gone."

"No, she won't. I will go a fishing in her every day."

"I think not, John."

"Do you think I can't manage her?" demanded the first officer, indignant
that such an aspersion should be cast upon his nautical skill.

"She's too heavy a boat for you to manage alone."

"I will get a couple of fellows to help me; they will be glad enough of
the chance."

"I dare say they will; but you are not quite old enough yet to run the
boat yourself."

"What odds does it make how old I am, if I only know how to handle her?
Could you work her any better if you were a hundred years old?"

"But you are reckless, careless, John; you know you are."

"I don't think I am; but I will promise to be very careful. You may take
the foresail off, if you please, before you go; then you will be sure I
shall not carry too much sail."

"I don't intend to go; so it is of no use to talk about it."

"You are a fool if you don't; that's all I have to say."

"You hav