hem.

Here he was welcomed warmly by his friend John Murray and his
colleagues, and was entertained for three days sumptuously on fresh
salmon, salt pork, pancakes, and tea. Intellectually, he was regaled
with glowing accounts of the fur trade and the salmon fisheries of that
region.

"Now, Jack," said Murray, on the third day after his arrival, while they
walked in front of the fort, smoking a morning pipe, "it is time that
you were off to the new fort. One of our best men has built it, but he
is not a suitable person to take charge, and as the salmon season has
pretty well advanced we are anxious to have you there to look after the
salting and sending of them to Quebec."

"What do you call the new fort?" inquired Jack.

"Well, it has not yet got a name. We've been so much in the habit of
styling it the New Fort that the necessity of another name has not
occurred to us. Perhaps, as you are to be its first master, we may
leave the naming of it to you."

"Very good," said Jack; "I am ready at a moment's notice. Shall I set
off this forenoon?"

"Not quite so sharp as that," replied Murray, laughing. "To-morrow
morning, at day-break, will do. There is a small sloop lying in a creek
about twenty miles below this. We beached her there last autumn.
You'll go down in a boat with three men, and haul her into deep water.
There will be spring tides in two days, so, with the help of tackle,
you'll easily manage it. Thence you will sail to the new fort, forty
miles farther along the coast, and take charge."

"The three men you mean to give me know their work, I presume?" said
Jack.

"Of course they do. None of them have been at the fort, however."

"Oh! How then shall we find it?" inquired Jack.

"By observation," replied the other. "Keep a sharp look out as you
coast along, and you can't miss it."

The idea of mists and darkness and storms occurred to Jack Robinson, but
he only answered, "Very good."

"Can any of the three men navigate the sloop?" he inquired.

"Not that I'm aware of," said Murray; "but you know something of
navigation, yourself, don't you?"

"No! nothing!"

"Pooh! nonsense. Have you never sailed a boat?"

"Yes, occasionally."

"Well, it's the same thing. If a squall comes, keep a steady hand on
the helm and a sharp eye to wind'ard, and you're safe as the Bank. If
it's too strong for you, loose the halyards, let the sheets fly, and
down with the helm; the easiest thing in the