at ails you? What makes you so
ill-natured? I hope I haven't done anything to give you reason for any
ill feeling."

"He wants us to go to Portland," said one of the crew.

"I thought you had got enough of cruising on your own hook," added Paul,
with a smile.

"I'm not going back to be snubbed by old Gordon; and the rest of the
fellows wouldn't, if they had any spunk at all. Come, Tom, let's keep
her away for Portland."

"I will not," replied Tom, decidedly; "at least, I will not unless Paul
thinks we had better go there."

"I do not think so," interposed Paul. "You have done wrong, and all of
you had better get in the right path as soon as possible."

"I am willing," said Tom.

"So am I," replied half a dozen others.

"The fact is, fellows," continued Tom, very earnestly, "I have had a
lesson which will last me as long as I live. This is the meanest scrape
I was ever concerned in, and when I get out of it I will try to do
better. You needn't grin, Frank Thompson; I am ashamed of what I have
done, and I confess that I am heartily sorry for it. I did more thinking
last night than I ever did in seven years before."

"Humph!" sneered Frank.

"I don't care what you say, Frank; if it is in my power to reform my
life, I mean to do it."

Tom continued his remarks in quite an eloquent strain, declaring that,
in the perils of the stormy night through which they had passed, he had
thought of all the wrong he had ever done, and resolved to be a better
boy. Above all things, he said, he had learned the necessity of
obedience; and that because he had refused to obey Captain Gordon, he
had been glad to obey the orders of Paul Duncan, a boy like himself.

"That schooner is bearing down upon us," said Samuel Nason, pointing to
a vessel over the weather quarter.

The stranger was evidently a fisherman, and had now approached within
hail of the Flyaway. In a few moments more she had come near enough to
enable the boys to distinguish the persons of those on board of her.

"Captain Littleton!" exclaimed Tom, who was the first to recognize him.

"Ease off the jib sheet!" shouted Frank, as he cast off the main sheet
himself, and put the helm up, so as to carry the yacht away from the
schooner.

"What are you doing?" demanded Paul.

"Do you think I am going to throw myself into the hands of Captain
Littleton and old Gordon? I'll bet I ain't," replied Frank.

"What are you going to do?" asked Tom.

"Get out of his way,