Brother Francis, nodding. "I've put a few more things in your trunk, Dan;
take them and God bless you! I've cut off the marks so nobody'll be the
wiser."

Brother Bart's wrinkled face wore a glow of pleasurable excitement as,
after seeing the baggage off, he marshalled his holiday force on the
college porch for the last words of command from his reverend chief.

"Give your orders now, Father; though God knows how I'll be able to keep
this lot up to them. They are not to be killing and drowning themselves
against my will and word."

"Certainly not," said Father Regan, with a smile. "Brother Bart is to be
obeyed, boys, or you'll promptly be ordered home."

"And there is to be no roving off wid pirates and smugglers that may be
doing their devilment along the shore," continued Brother Bart,
anxiously.

"The government looks out for all that now," laughed Father Regan.

"I'm not so sure," said Brother Bart, who had grown up in a wild stretch
of the Irish coast. "It's a wicked world, and we're going beyant the
Lord's light that shines on us here."

"Not at all," was the cheering assurance. "Beach Cliff is only six miles
away, and it has a little church where there is a Mass every Sunday."

"The Lord be praised for that anyhow!" said the good man, with a sigh of
relief. "It's a great burthen that ye've put on my body and soul, Father.
But I'll do me best, and, with God's help, I'll bring the four of them
back safe and sound to ye. Now give us your blessing and we'll be off."

And very soon they were off indeed, speeding on to the busy wharf, scene
of many a "lark" in Dan's boyish past. Here the great steamboat was
awaiting them: for, although the route was longer and more circuitous,
Father Regan had decided it best for his young travellers to make their
journey by sea.

To Jim and Dud such a trip was no novelty; even Freddy had taken more than
one holiday outing with Uncle Tom; but to Dan--Dan whose busy, workaday
childhood had excluded even the delights of a cheap excursion--everything
was wonderfully and deliciously new. He felt like one in a bewildering
dream. As the great floating palace, all aglitter and aglow with splendors
of paint and upholstery hitherto unknown, swung from her moorings out into
the stream, Dan quite forgot the gentility of his surroundings and the
elegant Dud Fielding at his elbow, and waved his hat with a wild "Hurrah"
to half a dozen Wharf Rats who were fishing off the pier.

"Dan Dola