week
before, he had come to Bangor, hoping to obtain employment for the
winter in one of the saw-mills. In this he has been unsuccessful; and
the previous night, while returning from the city to the house on its
outskirts in which he was staying, he undertook to cross a small creek,
in the mouth of which were a number of logs; these were so cemented
together by recently formed ice that he fancied they would form a safe
bridge, and tried to cross on it. When near the middle of the creek, to
his horror the ice gave way with a crash, and in another moment he was
floating away in the darkness on the cake from which he had been so
recently rescued. That it had supported him was owing to the fact that
it still held together two of the logs. He had not dared attempt to
swim ashore in the dark, and so had drifted on during the night,
keeping his feet from freezing by holding them most of the time in the
water.

After breakfast Mr. Elmer and the captain held a consultation, the
result of which was that the former offered Jan Jansen work in Florida,
if he chose to go to the St. Mark's with them; and Captain Drew offered
to let him work his passage to that place as one of the crew of the
Nancy Bell. Without much hesitation the poor Swede accepted both these
offers, and as soon as he had recovered from the effects of his
experience on the ice raft was provided with a bunk in the forecastle.

CHAPTER III.

"CAPTAIN LI'S" STORY.

All day the Nancy Bell was towed down the broad river, the glorious
scenery along its banks arousing the constant enthusiasm of our
travellers. Late in the afternoon they passed the gray walls of Fort
Knox on the right, and the pretty little town of Bucksport on the left.
They could just see the great hotel at Fort Point through the gathering
dusk, and soon afterwards were tossing on the wild, windswept waters of
Penobscot Bay.

As they cleared the land, so as to sight Castine Light over the port
quarter, the tug cast loose from them and sail was made on the
schooner. The last thing Mark Elmer saw as he left the deck, driven
below by the bitter cold, was the gleam of the light on Owl's Head,
outside which Captain Drew said they should find the sea pretty rough.

The rest of the family had gone below some time before, and Mark found
that his mother was already very sea-sick. He felt rather uncomfortable
himself, and did not care much for the supper, of which his father and
Ruth eat so heartily