ck seemed to care less about the riding than I did. His passion for
the sea--for boats, sea-weeds, stones, caves, and cliffs, everything
directly and indirectly belonging to the sea--grew and strengthened upon
him. His special ambition was to succeed in constructing a rival to the
"Fair Alice;" but although honourable scars on his fingers bore witness
to the industry with which he plied his tools, his attempts at
ship-building had hitherto proved signal failures. I was more successful
in my carpentry than he was, and it was quite a pleasure to me to give
him all the help I could. Between us we at last produced something more
resembling a ship than all former attempts, and we rushed eagerly down
to the Cove one bright September afternoon, impatient for the launch.

Aleck and I had the Cove all to ourselves: old George had not been with
us so much as usual for weeks past; there were, indeed, few days we did
not see him, but he did not stay with us all through our play-time; he
would come and go, and come and go, until we boys would take to teasing
him with questions as to what it could be that kept him so much
occupied. I had my own private suspicions, and communicated them to
Aleck; but old George would throw no light upon the subject.

I had good reason for remembering that the 20th of September, now
drawing near, was my parents' wedding-day, my mother's birth-day, and
almost the greatest festival in the year to us at Braycombe. Old George,
who lay in wait for opportunities of giving me presents, always looked
upon this anniversary as one that would admit of no questioning, and
more than once the offering to me--by which he meant to show his love to
my parents--had been the result of many a long hour's secret work. The
"Fair Alice" had been my present on the preceding year, and I had dim
suspicions--built upon a certain hasty glance into a little room called
the work-shop at the back of the lodge--that something else was even now
in course of construction, which I half suspected to be a schooner-yacht
with two masts, such as I had more than once expressed a wish to
possess. But George was impenetrable, and kept the work-shop closely
bolted, so I had to nurse my curiosity until the 20th. It was the day
before this great occasion that Aleck and I ran down to launch our boat,
as before-mentioned.

Alas! we had scarcely pushed it out upon the water, when, with a roll
and lurch, it turned over upon its side, and floated lik