floating off on an exploring expedition on its own account."

The next day was Sunday, and the boys had no chance to use the boat
again until Monday after school. When they hurried to the spot where
it had been moored, alas! the _Jolly Pioneer_ was nowhere to be seen.

"Do you think she broke away?" asked Leo.

"Pshaw! The _Jolly Pioneer_ isn't a pony!" impatiently answered Jack.

"But the rope might have snapped," said Jim.

"No: the boat has been stolen," muttered Bob, gloomily.

"I don't believe that," continued Jim. "Perhaps some of the fellows
around have hidden her, just to plague us."

"I bet it was those Jenkins boys!" declared Jack. "Don't you remember,
Rob, how we made them stop badgering little Tommy Casey in the
school-yard the other day, and how mad they were about it?"

"Yes, and they swore they'd be even with us," answered Rob.

The Jenkins boys were the children of a drunken father, a slatternly
mother. Brought up in a comfortless, poverty-stricken home, without
any religious teaching or influences, what wonder that they became
addicted to most of the petty vices,--that they acquired an unenviable
reputation for mischief, mendacity, and thieving in a small way?

Jack's inference could hardly be called a rash judgment. A glimpse of