Poor Mr. Elmer, exhausted by the unusual exertions of the day, lay
awake and coughed most of the night, but the children slept like
tops. When Mark did wake he forgot where he was, and in trying to
sit up and look around, bumped his head against the low ceiling of
his berth.

Daylight was streaming in at the round glass dead-eye that served
as a window, and to Mark's great surprise he felt that the
schooner was moving. Slipping down from his berth, and quietly
dressing himself, so as not to disturb his father, he hurried on
deck, where he was greeted by "Captain Li," who told him he had
come just in time to see something interesting.

The Nancy Bell was in tow of a little puffing steam-tug, and was
already some miles from Bangor down the Penobscot River. The
clouds of steam rising into the cold air from the surface of the
warmer water were tinged with gold by the newly-risen sun. A heavy
frost rested on the spruces and balsams that fringed the banks of
the river, and as the sunlight struck one twig after another, it
covered them with millions of points like diamonds. Many cakes of
ice were floating in the river, showing that its navigation would
soon be closed for the winter.

To one of these cakes of ice, towards which a boat from the
schooner was making its way, the captain directed Mark's
attention. On this cake, which was about as large as a dinner-
table, stood a man anxiously watching the approach of the boat.

"What I can't understand," said the captain, "is where he ever
found a cake of ice at this time of year strong enough to bear him