ke a fishing-boat," said Dick.

"No, my lad. As far as I can make out, it is the remains of an old war
galley."

"Then it must have belonged to the Danes."

"Danes or Saxons, Dick."

"But the wood's sound," cried Tom. "It can't be so old as that."

"Why not, Tom? Your people dig out pine-roots, don't they, perfectly
sound, and full of turpentine? This is pine wood, and full of
turpentine too."

"But it's such a while since the Danes and Saxons were here, Mr
Marston," said Tom.

"A mere yesterday, my lad, compared to the time when the country about
here was a great pine and birch forest, before this peat began to form."

"Before the peat began to form!"

"To be sure! Pine and birch don't grow in peaty swamps, but in sandy
ground with plenty of gravel. Look all about you at the scores of great
pine-roots my men have dug out. They are all pine, and there must have
been quite a large forest here once."

"And was that farther back?"

"Perhaps thousands of years before the Danes first landed. The peat
preserves the wood, Tom. Bog is not rotten mud, but the decayed masses
that have grown in the watery expanse. Well, Dick, what do you think of
it?"

"I wish we could get it home to our place to keep as a curiosity?"

"But it would want a shed over it, my lad, for the rain, wind, and sun
would soon make an end of it."

"Then, what are you going to do?"

"Get it out and up that slope they are cutting, along some planks if we
can, and then fill up the trench."

The lads inspected the curious-looking old hull, whose aspect seemed to
bring up recollections of the history of early England, when
fierce-looking men, half sailors, half warriors, came over from the
Norland in boats like this, propelled by great oars, and carrying a
short thick mast and one sail. All the upper portions had rotted away,
but enough of the hull remained to show pretty well what its shape must
have been, and that it had had a curiously-projecting place that must
have curved out like the neck of a bird, the whole vessel having borne a
rough resemblance to an elongated duck or swan.

The boys were, however, by no means so enthusiastic as the engineer; and
as a great figure came looming up behind them, Dick was ready enough to
welcome the incident of the man's reminder about the disturbance at the
Toft.

"We're mates, we are," cried the great fellow, holding out his broad
hairy hand to take Dick's in his grasp, and shake it stea