e there is a soft beach.
Do you get off every Saturday now, Laud?"

"Get off? Yes; I get off every day. I'm out of a job."

"I thought you were at Miller's store."

"I was there; but I'm not now. Miller shoved me out. Do you know of any
fellow that has a good boat to sell?"

"What kind of a boat?"

"Well, one like the Skylark and the Sea Foam."

"No; I don't know of any one around here. Do you want to buy one?"

"Yes; I thought I would buy one, if I could get her about right. She
must be cheap."

"How cheap do you expect to buy a boat like the Sea Foam?" asked Donald,
wondering what a young man out of business could be thinking about when
he talked of buying a yacht.

"Four or five hundred dollars."

"The Sea Foam cost twelve hundred."

"That's a fancy price. The Skylark didn't cost but five hundred."

"Do you want to give five hundred for a boat?"

"Not for myself, Don John. I was going to buy one for another man. I
must be going now," added Laud, as he went down to his boat.

Hoisting his sail, he shoved off, and stood over towards Searsport.
Donald walked up the slope to the Head, from which he could see the
yacht club fleet as soon as it sailed from the city.

CHAPTER V.

CAPTAIN SHIVERNOCK.

Donald seated himself on a rock, with his gaze directed towards Belfast.
His particular desire just then was to see Samuel Rodman, in order to
learn whether he was to have the job of building the Maud. He felt able
to do it, and even then, as he thought of the work, he had in his mind
the symmetrical lines of the new yacht, as they were to be after the
change in the model which his father had explained to him. He recalled a
suggestion of a small increase in the size of the mainsail, which had
occurred to him when he sailed the Sea Foam. His first aspiration was
only to build a yacht; his second was to build one that would beat
anything of her inches in the fleet. If he could realize this last
ambition, he would have all the business he could do.

The yacht fleet did not appear up the bay; but it was only nine o'clock
in the morning, and possibly the meeting of the club would not take
place till afternoon. If any one had told him the hour, he had forgotten
it, but the former meeting had been in the forenoon. He was too nervous
to sit still a great while, and, rising, he walked about, musing upon
his grand scheme. The place was an elevated platform of rock, a portion
of it covered with soil to the d