but its bounds, too, are set. It begins at the moment
when the first ray of the plan-idea dawns on one's mind, and it ends with
the day of fulfillment. If the dawn begins long before the day, so much
the better.

It was early fall, and we had come in from a day by the river, where we
had tramped miles up, to one of its infrequent bridges, and miles down on
the other bank. Now we sat before the fire, talking it over.

"If we only had a boat!" I said.

"Boat! What do you want a boat for? You wouldn't want to sit in a boat all
day."

"Who said I would? But I want to get into it, and float off, and get out
again somewhere else. That's my idea of a boat."

"Oh, of course, a boat would be handy--"

"Handy! You talk as if it was a buttonhook!"

"Well?"

"Well--of course it _is_ handy--as you call it--but a boat means such a lot
of things--adventure, romance. When you're in a boat--a little boat--anything
might happen."

"Yes," said Jonathan, drawing the logs together, "that's just the way your
family feels about it when you're young."

Then we both laughed, and there was a reminiscent pause.

"What became of your boat?" I asked finally.

"Sold. You kept yours."

"Yes. It's in the cellar, there at Nantucket. I could have it sent on."

"Cost as much as to buy a new one."

"A new one wouldn't be as good." I bristled a little. Any one who has
owned a boat is very sensitive about its virtues.

"How big?"

"How should I know? A little boat--maybe twelve feet."

"Two oars?"

"Four."

"Round bottom?"

"Yes. She'd ride anything."

"Well"--Jonathan suddenly expanded--"here's an idea now! How would you like
to have it sent on to the mainland, and then row it the rest of the
way--along the Rhode Island and Connecticut shores?"

I sat straight up. "Jonathan! Let's do it now!"

Jonathan chuckled. "My! What a hurry she's in!"

"Well, let's!"

"We couldn't. The boat will have to be overhauled first."

"Oh, dear! I suppose so."

"We could do it next spring, and go up the trout streams."

"Think of that!" I murmured.

"Or in September and get the shore hunting--the salt marshes."

"Oh, which?--which?" Already I was following our course along curving
beaches and amongst the yellow marshlands. But Jonathan's mind was working
on more practical details.

"Twelve feet, you said?"

"About that."

"Pretty close stowing for our dunnage--still--let's see--two guns--"

"Or the rods, if we went in the spring