“Down the bay?”

“Yes.  You see the boys kine o’ want to go home by water, rayther than by land.”

“By water!  Home by water!” repeated Mr. Long, doubtfully.

“Yes,” said Captain Corbet; “an bein as the schewner was in good repair, an corked, an coal-tarred, an whitewashed up fust rate, I kine o’ thought it would redound to our mootooil benefit if we went off on sich a excursion,—­bein pleasanter, cheaper, comfortabler, an every way preferable to a land tower.”

“Hem,” said Dr. Porter, looking uneasily about.  “I don’t altogether like it.  Boys, what does it all mean?”

Thus appealed to, Bart became spokesman for the boys.

“Why, sir,” said he, “we thought we’d like to go home by water—­ that’s all.”

“Go home by water!” repeated the doctor once more, with a curious smile.

“Yes, sir.”

“What? by the Bay of Fundy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Who are going?”

“Well, sir, there are only a few of us.  Bruce, and Arthur, and Tom, and Phil, and Pat, besides myself.”

“Bruce and Arthur?” said the doctor; “are they going home by the Bay of Fundy?”

“Yes, sir,” said Bart, with a smile.

“I don’t see how they can get to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Prince Edward’s Island from the Bay of Fundy,” said the doctor, “without going round Nova Scotia, and that will be a journey of many hundred miles.”

“O, no, sir,” said Bruce; “we are going first to Moncton.”

“O, is that the idea?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And where will you go from Moncton?”

“To Shediac, and then home.”

“And are you going to Newfoundland by that route, Tom?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, sir,” said Tom, gravely.

“From Shediac?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I never knew before that there were vessels going from Shediac to Newfoundland.”

“O, I’m going to Prince Edward’s Island first, sir, with Bruce and Arthur,” said Tom.  “I’ll find my way home from there.”

The doctor smiled.

“I’m afraid you’ll find it a long journey before you reach home.  Won’t your friends be anxious?”

“O, no, sir.  I wrote that I wanted to visit Bruce and Arthur, and they gave me leave.”

“And you, Phil, are you going home by the Antelope?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are going exactly in a straight line away from it.”

“Am I, sir?”

“Of course you are.  This isn’t the way to Chester.”

“Well, sir, you see I’m going to visit Bart at St. John.”

“O, I understand.  And that is your plan, then?”

“Yes, sir,” said Bart.  “Pat is going too.”

“Where are you going first?”

“First, sir, we will sail to the Petitcodiac River, and go up it as far as Moncton, where Bruce, and Arthur, and Tom will leave us.”

“And then?”

“Then we will go to St. John, where Phil, and Pat, and I will leave her.  Solomon, too, will leave her there.”