d for packing goods also. I dare say if you hunt around in the barn
you will find a little lying about somewhere. But, bless me, you young
rogues! Here you are all this time in your wet clothes. Leo, your
mother will be worried for fear you may take cold. Run home as fast as
you can and get into a dry suit. And you other fellows, come! We'll
take the _Jolly Pioneer_ back to the workshop without delay; and then
you must hurry and do the same."

IV.

Many days had not passed before the boys succeeded in making the punt
water-tight. Yet the carpentering still went on at the barn.

"What is all the hammering for now?" asked Mr. Gordon one afternoon.
"I thought the _Jolly Pioneer_ was in splendid trim and doing good
service."

"So she is," answered Jack. "But--well, she doesn't quite come up to
our expectations; so Rob and I have given her to the little boys. We
are building a larger boat for ourselves."

Upon the principle "Never look a gift-horse in the mouth," Jim and Leo
were not disposed to find anything amiss with the present. In the
first flush of their pride of possession they were quite jubilant.

It was shortly after this that Jim came in to dinner one day, tattooed
in a manner which would remind one of a sachem in full Indian
war-paint. There was a patch of blue low down on one cheek, a daub of
red high up on the other, a tip of chrome-yellow on the end of his
nose, and a fair share of all three upon his hands, and the sleeve of
his jacket as well.

"Why, my son!" exclaimed Mrs. Gordon, as this vision met her eyes.

"Can't help it, mother,--it won't come off. I've scrubbed and
scrubbed!" the little fellow protested, apologetically.

"Plenty of hot water and soap will prove effectual. But you must
persevere," she went on, good-naturedly. "But what is the reason of
this extraordinary decoration? Do you want to be taken for the
'missing link'?"

Mrs. Gordon was always good friends with her boys. She had a bright,
cheery way of talking to them, of entering into their plans. She
thoroughly appreciated a joke, even a practical one, when it was not
perpetrated at the expense of anybody's feelings. And the lads could
always count upon her interest and sympathy. It was not easy to impose
upon her, though. "I tell you, if a fellow tries, he is always sure to
get the worst of it!" Jim used to say.

"Ah, that is better!" said she, when Jim returned to the dining-room,
his face at last re