emen ashore."

"Are you in earnest, Mr. Atherton?"

"Quite in earnest that we are going to do so, Mrs. Renshaw. There may be
no absolute occasion for it, but there is nothing like keeping on the
safe side; and as we cannot go ashore, and one cannot talk continuously
for fifteen or sixteen hours, we may just as well pass a portion of our
time in playing at sentinels."

"But when will you get breakfast?" Marion asked. "Shall I bring it up to
you, Mr. Atherton?"

"No, thank you, Miss Renshaw. We have arranged to have it with Mr. Ryan
afterwards. I am much obliged to you for your offer just the same. It is
a very kind one, especially since you will, for once, particularly enjoy
your breakfast, as you will have room for your elbows."

"You are laughing at me again, Mr. Atherton. One would really think
that you take me to be about ten years old."

"I think a little teasing does you good, Miss Renshaw. It is one of the
privileges of us old fellows to try to do good to our young friends; and
girls of your age lord it so over their brothers and their brothers'
friends, that it is good for them to be teased a little by their
elders."

"Would not you think, mother," Marion appealed, "that Mr. Atherton by
his talk was somewhere about eighty and that I was quite a child?"

"I agree with him that it is rather a good thing for girls of your age,
Marion, to be snubbed a little occasionally; especially on a voyage like
this, when there are several young fellows on board who have nothing
better to do than to wait upon you and humour your whims."

There was a general laugh. Before a fresh subject was started the
breakfast bell rang and the passengers went below. Mr. Atherton fetched
his rifle from his cabin, and Wilfrid was going to unpack his
double-barrelled gun when his friend said: "I should not bother about
that now, Wilfrid; take one of the ship's muskets. It will make just as
much noise if you have to fire it, and you will not be alarming the
passengers by bringing your gun backwards and forwards from your cabin.
I am going to hang up my rifle when I come off guard in Ryan's cabin on
deck, where it will be handy. You take the fo'castle, your two men can
be in the waist, one on each side, and I will take the poop. Just at
present our duty will be a nominal one, as the canoes have not put out,
but I expect they will be here before long."

Before breakfast was over, indeed, a large canoe was brought down from
the woods and