estination.

Just as they entered, the storm broke. There was a long roll of thunder
followed by a blinding flash and then the rain began to fall in
torrents.

"Just in time, weren't we?" said Fred with a laugh. "You're always
right if you do what I tell you to. It was my suggestion and I am glad
that for once in your lives you had wisdom enough to do what I said."

"That remains to be seen," said Grant dryly as he looked about the room
in which they found themselves. "It seems to me that the motto over the
door of this place ought to be, 'He who enters here leaves soap
behind.'"

"Where did you find that?" laughed George.

"Didn't you ever hear of the motto over the Bridge of Sighs?"

Whether the boys had ever heard of the famous bridge or not was not
manifest, for at that moment in the midst of a deafening peal of
thunder the landlady entered the room where the boys were waiting.

"What can I do for you?" she inquired as the thunder ceased.

"We're caught in the storm and thought perhaps we might stay here all
night," suggested Fred.

"The house is pretty full," said the woman dubiously. "I don't know
whether I can give you rooms or not."

At that moment there came a burst of loud laughter from the bar-room.
It was plain that many of the men who were employed on the canal also
had sought shelter in the little tavern. The house was old, so old that
the boards in the floor were warped and the low ceilings gave evidence
of the many years that had passed since they had been placed there. Not
a door fitted its frame and the windows were all small, the panes being
not much more than seven by nine. Whatever was done in one part of the
house plainly was likely to be known also in other parts. The noisy
men, who were drinking in the bar-room, whose shouts and songs and
cries now were even more distinctly heard, could not confine their loud
demonstrations to the room in which they had assembled even if they had
been so inclined.

"If you don't mind," suggested Fred to the landlady, "I think we would
like to go up to our rooms."

"Have you had any supper?" inquired the woman.

"Yes, we got some in Utica," replied Fred.

"Where are you goin'?"

"We expect to go to the St. Lawrence River."

"You don't tell me," exclaimed the woman. "How be you goin'?"

"We have got a motor-boat."

"Land sakes! You don't say so! That's a terrible long ways and I don't
see how you can get there with a boat all the way."

"Th