eful and beautiful she looked now, in the dying light! There is
nothing so clumsy looking as a boat on shore. To one who has seen a
craft "laid up," it is hardly recognizable when launched.

"Well, there ye are," said one of the men, "an' 'tain't dark yet
neither. You can move 'er by pullin' one finger now, hey? She looks
mighty nat'ral, don't she, Bill? Remember when we trucked her up from
the freight station and dumped her in three year ago? She was the
_Nymph_ then. Gol, how happy that kid was--you remember, Bill? I'll tell
_you_ kids now what I told him then--told him right in front of his
father; I says, 'Harry, you remember she's human and treat her as such,'
that's what I says ter him. _You_ remember, Bill."

Roy noticed that the girl had strolled away and was standing in the
gathering darkness a few yards distant, gazing at the boat. The clumsy
looking hull, in which the boys had taken refuge, seemed trim and
graceful now, and Roy was reminded of the fairy story of the ugly
duckling, who was really a swan, but whose wondrous beauty was
unappreciated until it found itself among its own kindred.

"Yes, sir, that's wot I told him, 'cause I've lived on the river here
all my life, ain't I, Bill, an' I know. Yer don't give an automobile no
name, an' yer don't give an airyplane no name, an' yer don't give a
motorcycle nor a bicycle no name, but yer give a boat a name 'cause
she's human. She'll be cranky and stubborn an' then she'll be soft and
amiable as pie--that's 'cause she's human. An' that's why a man'll let a
old boat stan' an' rot ruther'n sell it. 'Cause it's human and it kinder
gets him. You treat her as such, you boys."

"How did Harry Stanton die?" Tom asked.

The man, with a significant motion of his finger toward the lone figure
of the girl, drew nearer and the boys gathered about him.

"The old gent didn' tell ye, hey?"

"Not a word."

"Hmmm--well, Harry was summat older'n you boys, he was gettin' to be a
reg'lar young man. Trouble with him was he didn' know what he wanted.
First off, he must have a horse, 'n' then he must have a boat, so th'
old man, he got him this boat. He's crusty, but he's all to the good,
th' old man is."

"You bet your life he is," said Pee-wee.

"Well, Harry an' Benty Willis--you remember Benty, Bill--him an' Benty
Willis was out in the _Nymph_--that's this here very boat. They had 'er
anchored up a ways here, right off Cerry's Hill, an' they was out in the
skiff flopp