G!"

"There now, Mr. Skipper! Isn't that the name of all names for her?"

"The Starry Flag!" repeated Levi, as he gazed at the golden letters on
the stern of the yacht.

"Why don't you say something, you absurd skipper? I'm dying to know
what you think of it, and you don't say a word."

"I like it first-rate; but if I had read 'Bessie' there, I should have
liked it better, much as I like it now."

"I couldn't have her named after me! How ridiculous! I'm sorry you
don't like the name."

"But I do like it, Bessie; though you couldn't expect me to like any
other name as well as yours."

"Why, how absurd you are!" replied Bessie, as Levi ran the boat up to
the yacht.

The gangway had been rigged so that the passage from one craft to the
other was an easy matter, even for ladies. Mr. Watson assisted them on
board. One of the hands, who knew the coast, was deputed to take charge
of The Starry Flag, and Levi went on board of the beautiful vessel he
was to command.

"Well, Levi, what do you think of her?" asked Mr. Watson, after they
had walked around the deck, and inspected the cabin and cook-room of
the yacht.

"She is magnificent, sir!" replied Levi. "She is, without exception,
the finest yacht I ever saw, and I have examined a great many."

"I am glad she suits you. How do you like the name?"

"Very much, sir, though if it had been the Bessie, I should have liked
it better."

"I intended to give her that name, but Bessie was contrary, and
insisted that she should be called The Starry Flag, in grateful
remembrance of her trip from the Penobscot. I really appreciate her
motives, and both of us desire to perpetuate the name of your boat by
giving it to the finest yacht that could be built."

"Since it pleases both you and her, I ought to be satisfied with
it--and I am. We have two Starry Flags now, and we may get them mixed."

"The name of your boat shall henceforth be The Starry Flag, Jr.,"
laughed Mr. Watson. "When we say The Starry Flag, we mean the yacht,
and when we say The Starry Flag, Jr., we mean your boat."

The Starry Flag, then, cut her way through the long billows at a rate
which was highly gratifying to the embryo captain, who, prompt to his
instincts, had taken the helm, when he had examined her. He declared
that she steered splendidly, and he was sure she would prove to be a
good sea-boat. In a short time she came to anchor off Mike's Point. The
steward had prepared a lunch for the party, an