HOME AT THE HAVEN.



 CHAPTER IV.
 BOAT-BUILDING.
AFTER the conversation which her uncle and Lucy had
had together about the stars, in which the latter had
shown that she liked to understand such matters, her
mother observed that Captain Osborne often stopped
in the middle of what he was relating to Edward, in
order to explain sea terms, and such sailors' expres-
sions as he thought she might not understand; and
these explanations began to make his stories of ship-
wrecks and adventures at sea much more interesting
to her. Her mother's prophecy that Captain Osborne
would like Lucy, when he came to know her well, had
come to pass; and whilst he liked her for being so
obliging and intelligent, he quite loved her for her
truthfulness and strict feeling of honour.
 What made Lucy at this time particularly glad that
she was beginning to understand more about ships and
boats was, that her uncle and Edward had a grand
scheme for building a boat large enough to be rowed
on the pond at the bottom of the lawn. Now we must
explain that this pond, though avery pretty object to look
at from the house, with its weeping willow hanging over
it at one end, was rather an inconvenience to those who
lived at the Haven. It lay between the kitchen-garden
and lawn; and in order to get to the former, it was
necessary to go rather a long way round, through the
yard at the side of the house, and down a strip of
ground that was used for drying linen. At the time
that the strawberries were ripe, and afterwards, when
the cook was busy preserving, it was felt to be quite
tiresome to have to go such a long way round with