hat, instead
of every one hating to put his hand on the crank, the difficulty was to
keep the children away from it,--they would grind on it an hour at a
time. Such a renovation of damaged goods had never before been seen on
Spangler's premises.

_Author of "Ten Acres Enough."_

(_To be continued._)

AFLOAT IN THE FOREST:

OR, A VOYAGE AMONG THE TREE-TOPS.

CHAPTER I.

THE BROTHERS AT HOME.

Twenty years ago, not twenty miles from the Land's End, there lived a
Cornish gentleman named Trevannion. Just twenty years ago he died,
leaving to lament him a brace of noble boys, whose mother all three had
mourned, with like profound sorrow, but a short while before.

"Squire" Trevannion, as he was called, died in his own house, where his
ancestors for hundreds of years before him had dispensed hospitality.
None of them, however, had entertained so profusely as he; or rather
improvidently, it might be said, since in less than three months after
his death the old family mansion, with the broad acres appertaining to
it, passed into the hands of an alien, leaving his two sons, Ralph and
Richard, landless, houseless, and almost powerless. One thousand pounds
apiece was all that remained to them out of the wreck of the patrimonial
estates. It was whispered that even this much was not in reality theirs,
but had been given to them by the _very respectable_ solicitor who had
managed their father's affairs, and had furthermore _managed_ to succeed
him in the ownership of a property worth a rental of three thousand a
year.

Any one knowing the conditions under which the young Trevannions
received their two thousand pounds must have believed it to be a gift,
since it was handed over to them by the family solicitor with the
private understanding that they were to use it in pushing their fortunes
elsewhere,--anywhere except in Cornwall!

The land-pirate who had plucked them--for in reality had they been
plucked--did not wish them to stay at home, divested, as they were, of
their valuable plumage. He had appropriated their fine feathers, and
cared not for the naked bodies of the birds.

There were those in Cornwall who suspected foul play in the lawyer's
dealings with the young Trevannions,--among others, the victims
themselves. But what could they do? They were utterly ignorant of their
late father's affairs,--indeed, with any affairs that did not partake of
the nature of "sports." A solicitor "most respectable,"--a p