Captain John ordered one of the men to pull Mr. Randall and Lawry
ashore in the boat, and in a few minutes they were landed at Port Rock.




CHAPTER II


THE PORT ROCK FERRY


Lawrence Wilford was a full-fledged water-fowl. From his earliest
childhood he had paddled in Lake Champlain. His father had a small
place, consisting of ten acres of land with a small cottage; but it
was still encumbered with a mortgage, as it had been for twenty
years, though the note had passed through several hands, and had been
three times renewed. John Wilford was not a very sagacious nor a very
energetic man, and had not distinguished himself in the race for
wealth or for fame. He wanted to be rich, but he was not willing to
pay the price of riches.

His place was a short distance from the village of Port Rock, and
John Wilford, at the time he had purchased the land and built his
house, had established a ferry, which had been, and was still, his
principal means of support; for there was considerable travel between
Port Rock and Pointville, on the Vermont side of the lake.

The ferryman was a poor man, and was likely to remain a poor man to
the end of his life. Hardly a day passed in which he did not sigh to