t service he was doing me
when he left me alone on Egg Island."

Though Robert expressed his willingness to spend the night on Egg
Island, he soon became eager to get home so that he could exhibit to his
aunt the evidence of his extraordinary luck.

He anticipated the joy of the poor woman as she saw assured to her for
weeks to come a degree of comfort to which for a long time she had been
unaccustomed.

Robert examined his raft once more and resolved to proceed to make it
ready for service. It took longer than he anticipated, and it was nearly
two hours later before he ventured to launch it. He used a board for a
paddle, and on his frail craft he embarked, with a bold heart, for the
mainland.

CHAPTER XI

A FRIEND GOES TO THE RESCUE

Leaving Robert for a time, we will accompany George Randolph on his
homeward trip.

George did not at all enjoy the plain speaking he had heard from Robert.
The more he thought of it the more his pride was outraged and the more
deeply he was incensed.

"The low-lived fellow!" he exclaimed as he was rowing home. "I never
heard of such impudence before. He actually seemed to think that I would
take as a passenger a common fisherman's boy. I haven't sunk as low as
that."

George was brought up to have a high opinion of himself and his
position. He really thought that he was made of a different sort of clay
than the poor boys with whom he was brought in contact, and his foolish
parents encouraged him in this foolish belief.

Probably he would have been very much shocked if it had become known
that his own grandfather was an honest mechanic, who was compelled to
live in a very humble way.

George chose to forget this or to keep it out of sight, as it might have
embarrassed him when he was making his high social pretensions.

Falsely trained as he had been, and with a strong tendency to
selfishness, George had no difficulty in persuading himself that he had
done exactly right in rebuking the forwardness of his humble
acquaintance.

"He isn't fit to associate with a gentleman," he said to himself. "What
business is it of mine that he has to stay on the island all night? If
his uncle left him there, I dare say he deserved it."

George did not immediately land when he reached the beach, but floated
here and there at will, enjoying the delightful sea breeze which set in
from seaward. At length, however, he became tired and landed. The boat
did not belong to him, but was hir