too bad. Our leave would have been stopped if
we had gone on board," laughed Scott, who generally took the most
cheerful view of any disagreeable subject. "Why can't we go on our own
hook?"

"I like that idea," added Laybold.

But inquiring of the agent, they learned that the canal steamers left
only at two o'clock in the morning.

"There's a railroad, or the fellows couldn't come back that way,"
suggested Laybold.

"That's so; you have more wisdom than a Duxbury clam."

They ascertained that a train left Gottenburg at noon, by which they
could reach Wenersberg the same day. They knew nothing of the plan of
the principal, which included a special train from the canal to the
main line of railway; but they desired to see more of the interior of
Sweden, and they were confident they should see the excursionists
either at Wenersberg or on the way. It suited them better to make a
trip even for a few hours, than to wander about a city which they had
already exhausted. But they were obliged to wait some time for the
train, and, after a couple of hours of "heavy loafing" about the
streets, they returned to the pier. An English steamer had just
arrived, and a boat was landing her passengers.

"Who are those fellows?" said Laybold, pointing to the steamer's boat.
"They wear the ship's uniform."

"Right; they do, and they came from that steamer," replied Scott.

"There's Sanford! I should know him a mile off. They are the second
cutters, or I am a Dutchman."

"Right again," added Scott, as the passengers landed.

The steamer was the one in which Sanford and his companions had taken
passage at Christiania the evening before. The absentees, "on a cruise
without running away," were sorry to see the ship at anchor in the
harbor, for some of them had hoped to be too late for her. When they
landed, the first persons they encountered were Scott and Laybold, who
gave them a very cordial greeting. Each party had a story to tell of
its own adventures, and Scott knew Sanford and his associates too well
to think it necessary to conceal from them the fact that he and
Laybold had been the sad victims of "finkel."

"But why don't you go on board?" asked Burchmore.

"What's the use? All the fellows have gone up to Wobblewopkins, or
some other place, to see the falls, and take an inside view of
Sweden," replied Scott. "We intend to go and do likewise."

"Won't you go with us?" added Laybold.

The intentions of the two were explai