A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA.

of home, and at the last bend in the white road surreptitiously stifled a sigh,
lest Dick should reprove him for the weakness. Molly would be lying in front
of the window, and no little brother would run back to greet her to-day.

“T say, Jack, isn’t this jolly?” said Dick, who was perfectly callous as to
the feelings of others. ‘‘1 wonder how long it will be before we see this old
harbor again?”

Jack could not find quite a ready answer. His mother and Molly and Dot
were very dear just then: had he. forgotten
them during the last few hours? But of

 
 
 
  
  
 

course the new life upon which they were
entering must be jolly since Dick found
it so.
- The first man to whom they applied was
the owner of a
fishing-smack. He
' was seated on an
upturned _ barrel,
smoking, when the
boys approached,
and eyed them
suspiciously as
they proffered
their strange re-
quest.

“Run away
from_ school, —

eh?” he grunted.
“Speak up, now,
don’t shilly-shally

eRe a LED T RTI

with me.”

“No,” said both
the boys, feeling uncomfortable, and glancing over their shoulders to see they
had not been followed. “Well, clear out of this. I don’t like the looks OF
you,” said the man.

Jack felt cruelly rebuffed, but to argue the point with so surly an indi-
vidual was impossible. They moved slowly away.