Edward accosted one of the sentinels, and asked him
if the captain of the steam-boat sent his small boat ashore. "Fraquently
he does, and fraquently he don't," replied the fellow, rather surlily.
"Does the boat stop at fort Niagara?"

"Indeed sir, and that is what I cannot tell you."

"Well," pursued Edward with simplicity, "do you think they will send
ashore to-day?"

"Indeed master, and it's what I am not thinking about."

Edward turned away, making a mental comparison between this man and
his own civil countrymen, greatly to the disadvantage of the former,
when his attention was attracted by the approach of a boat which came
skimming over the water like a bird, and as it neared the shore, a
little tight-built sailor leaped on to the wharf, and announced himself
as Jemmy Chapman, the captain's mate. While the baggage was arranging in
the boat, Edward seized the favorable moment to make the best bargain he
could with the mate for his protegee.

But the mate averred he had no power to transact that business, and
referred him to his captain. "You may safely trust to him, my young
man," said he, "for captain Vaughan is not a man to take advantage of
a ship in distress."

And so it proved--for the captain, (as every body knows, who ever
crossed the lake in the steam-boat Ontario) was a man of distinguished
humanity; and pleased with the good appearance of Mrs. Barton and her
children, and the zeal of her youthful protectors, he said, that if she
had brought her thread and needles a-board, she might work her passage
to Ogdensburg, for he and some of his men were sadly out at elbows. The
good woman's eyes glistened with delight, at the thought of paying her
way thus far, and she seated herself directly to put new pockets in an
old coat of Jemmy's, when a sudden attack of tooth-ache put a stop to
her progress.

The children were soon acquainted with her malady, for they were
continually hovering about her, and Julia procured some camphor and
laudanum from an invalid passenger, and gave them to her. She applied
them, but the horrible pangs were not allayed, when Jemmy Chapman was
attracted by the report of her distress. "Stand away, all," said he;
"stand away--fall back, my young man; and you, my little lady, and
give place to me. I am the seventh son of a seventh son, and I can cure
any body's tooth-ache but my own." Mrs. Barton was not free from the
superstition which pervades her class, and she gladly permitted him