e mate,
I pulled on board the newly-arrived ship.

Silas--for I was right in my conjectures--was looking over the side as I
climbed up it. He almost wrung my hand off as he took it in his grasp.
"I am glad to see ye, I am, Peter!" he exclaimed. "Why, lad, I thought
you had gone to the bottom with all who remained on board."

I told him that we had in like manner fancied that all on the raft had
perished; and I was glad to find that, with the exception of two, all
had been picked up by the ship on board of which they then were. He
then asked me what my plans were, and I told him what Captain Dean
advised. He next inquired if I had seen Captain Swales. I replied that
I had met him twice in the streets of Quebec, and that he had eyed me
with no very friendly glance.

"Then depend on it, Peter, he means you some mischief," he observed.
"If he gets another ship here, which is likely enough he will, he will
want hands; and if he can lay hold of you, he will claim you as put
under his charge by your father; and I don't know how you are to get
off."

"By keeping out of his way, I should think," I replied.

"That's just what I was going to advise you to do, Peter," observed
Silas. "And I'll tell you what, lad, instead of your kicking your heels
doing nothing in this place, you and I will start off up the country
with our guns as soon as I have done my business here, which won't take
long, and we'll see if we can't pick up a few skins which will be worth
something."

This proposition, as may be supposed, was much to my taste; but I did
not much like the thoughts of leaving Captain Dean and Mary, though I
did not tell him so. He, however, very soon discovered what was running
in my mind, and set himself to work to overcome the wish I had to remain
with them. I had found so few friends of late, that I had learned to
value them properly. But Silas Flint wanted a companion, and, liking
me, was resolved that I should accompany him. We went on shore
together; and before the day was over, he had so worked up my
imagination by his descriptions of the sport and scenery of the
backwoods, that I became most eager to set off.

I next day told Captain Dean; and as I assured him that it was my
father's wish that I should see something of the country, he did not
oppose the plan, provided I should return in time to sail with him.
This I promised to do; and I then went below to tell Mary, who was in
the cabin packing up some th