d he, "and would not give me time enough to
answer their questions, so they got very little information from me.
There was one very nice girl there though, that I should like to know,
and when I get back from England, I think I shall try and see her
parents, for I shall be very lonely all by myself, when you are gone."

Poor fellow! He had fallen in love at first sight with a vengeance. But
it is just like we poor men; we are no sooner in possession of enough
means to live comfortably upon, than we are sure to want to share it
with someone else, providing the someone else is a pretty and loveable
woman. Right away from the Creation it has been the same. Adam and Eve
set us young fellows an example that it seems will never die out--at
least I hope not till we have all found Eves to our liking.

The next ten days we worked very hard, for we lengthened the
"Anglo-Franc" nearly five feet amidships, and built her up nearly a foot
above her old gunwale, so that by raising the deck or roof of the cuddy
forward about fourteen inches, and lengthening it a couple of feet, we
had quite a cosy little cabin.

It was wonderful what a remarkable difference these alterations made in
her appearance. True, she was only some six inches broader in the beam,
but now that she was lengthened amidships she was over twenty feet long,
and could stand larger and taller masts. These we soon gave her, so that
she now appeared as a half-decked lugger, and, considering our materials
and tools, quite a smart little craft.

My occupation of Jethou, according to the agreement, ceased on September
2nd, and as it was now the last day of August, we set about putting
everything in order previous to leaving on the 3rd, should the weather
prove fine.

It would never do to leave the island without someone in charge; and as
we neither of us knew anyone who would act while Alec was away, we were
again in a quandary. At last I hit on a bright idea, one that made my
comrade's eyes sparkle with delight.

"Did you not say that the pretty damsel of Herm had a father?" I asked.

[Illustration: LENGTHENING THE "ANGLO-FRANC."]

"Yes," said Alec, "and a mother too. Would you like them to come over
and take charge? Yes? Oh! la! la!!"

Then the simple fellow gambolled about like a young schoolboy, and
exclaimed, "Never mind the boat, let me try and swim over."

"Swim, Alec! Don't be a ninny. Do you want to throw your life away in
such madness? Go down to the boa