WIS!_

It was not easy to devise a plan for this noble design, and it was not
until the morning of the second day of his visit, that Mr. P. was ready
for the adventure. Then he hired a boat, and set sail, alone, o'er the
boundless bosom of the Atlantic.

He had not sailed more than a few hours on said boundless bosom, before
he turned his prow back towards land,--towards the far-famed Lime Rocks,
on which the intrepid heroine dwells. He had thought of being wrecked at
night, but fearing that IDA might not be able to find him in the dark,
he gave up this idea. His present intention was that Miss LEWIS should
believe him to be a lonely mariner from a far distance, tossed by the
angry waves upon her rock-bound coast But there was a certain difficulty
in the way, which Mr. P. feared would prove fatal to his hopes.

The sea was just as smooth as glass!

And the wind all died away!

There was not enough left to ruffle a squirrel's tail. How absurd the
situation! How could he ever be dashed helpless upon the rocks under
such circumstances?

The tide was setting in, and as he gradually drifted towards the land,
he saw the storied rocks, and even perceived Miss IDA, sitting upon a
shady prominence, crocheting a tidy.

What should he do to attract her attention? How put himself in imminent
peril? His anxiety for a time was dreadful, but he thought of a plan. He
got out his knife and whittled the mast half through.

"Now," thought he, "if my mast and rigging go by the board, she will
surely come and rescue me!"

But the mast and rigging were as obstinate as outside speculators in
Wall street,--they would not go by the board,--and Mr. P. was obliged at
last to break down the mast by main force. But the lady heard not the
awful crash, and little weened that a fellow-being was out alone on the
wild watery waste, in a shipwrecked bark! After waiting for some time,
that she might ween this terrible truth, Mr. P, concluded that there was
nothing to do but to spring a leak.

But he found this difficult. Kick as hard as he might, he could not
loosen a bottom board. And he had no auger! The Lime Rocks were getting
nearer and nearer. Would he drift safely ashore?

"Oh! how can I wreck myself, 'ere it be too late?" he cried, in the
agony of his heart. Wild with apprehensions of reaching the land without
danger, he sat down and madly whittled a hole in the bottom of the boat,
making it, as nearly as possible, such a one as a swor