the captain's state-room was a boy fast asleep!

It was the latter part of the afternoon, and one of the men at work on the
new vessel came to Wort's father, and said, "Cap'n, shall we let the
schooner lie off in the stream to-night, or do you take her to her wharf?"

"No chance for her at the wharf, and she must stay here till Monday, and I
don't think any one need stay with her and watch. She is so heavily
anchored she can't very well run away. We will all leave. But where is my
boy?"

"I think, cap'n, I see a boy like him going off with your brother."

"All right. My brother Nathan was here, and he will look after Wort. Now
we will go."

When Skipper Wentworth reached home his wife told him that "Nathan" had
said something about taking Wort home with him to spend a day or two at
his farm, three miles away.

"Then Wort has gone with Nathan, wife?"

"I think he must have, as he has not come home."

"He is with Nathan. All right."

The good folks went to bed, and nobody told them where Wort was. The
little waves rippling about the schooner may have known, and a bright,
inquisitive star looking in at the cabin window may have known, but
neither wave nor star told the secret. Toward morning Wort woke up. Where