u over the river in a few minutes, if you will go in our
skiff."

"You? can you manage that shell of a thing? will your father let you
take it, Miss Boarders?"

"My name is Janet Rainsford, and Squire Boarders is not my father," said
I, some of my sullenness returning.

"If you will take me, Janet," said he, with the frank, open-hearted tone
which had won my step-father the night before,--a tone before which my
sullenness melted.

I jumped in, and, letting him pass me before I threw off the rope,
sculled the little dug-out into the middle of the river. No boatman on
the Sandy was more skilful than I in the management of the little
vessel, for in it most of my leisure time had been passed for the last
year or two. My step-mother had scolded, my father grumbled, and the
farmers' wives and daughters had shaken their heads and "allowed that
Janet Rainsford would come to no good, if she was let fool about here
and there, like a boy." But on that point I was incorrigible; the boat
was my one escape from my daily drudgery, and late at night and early in
the morning I went up and down among the shoals and bars, under the
trees and over the ripples, till every turn of the current was familiar
to me. I knew all the boatmen, too, up and down the river, would pull
along-side their rafts or pushing-boats, and get from them a slice of
their corn-bread or a cup of coffee, or at least a pleasant word or
jest. And none but pleasant words did I ever receive from the rough, but
honorable men whom I met. They respected, as the roughest men will
always do, my lonely girlhood, and felt a sort of pride in the daring,
adventurous spirit that I showed.

My knowledge of the river stood Mr. Hammond in good stead that morning,
as soon as I understood that he was looking for a place where his men
could land easily. It was only to sweep round a small bluff that jutted
into the river, and carry the skiff into the mouth of Nat's Creek,
where the bank sloped gradually down to the water from a level bit of
meadow-land that extended back some rods before the hills began to rise.
Mr. Hammond leaped out.

"The very place,--and here, on this point, shall be my saw-mill. I'll
run the road through here and up the creek to the mining-ground, and
build my store under the ledge there, and my shanties on each side the
road."

I caught his enthusiasm, and, my shyness all gone, I found myself
listening and suggesting; more than that, I found my suggestions