He would take this boat, and go over to Uncle Isaac’s Point; if he was working, off coat, and help him, in order that Uncle Isaac might be able to fish or hunt with him.
He was naturally of a mechanical turn, and would amuse himself in the shop with the tools. Indeed, he was, with one exception, universally liked. He could not make friends with Tige, and never dared to go to Captain Rhines’s in the evening. With Sailor and Uncle Isaac’s Watch he was a sworn friend; but Tige would have nothing to do with him, and it was by no means safe to force attentions upon Tige.
His attenuated limbs became round and plump with muscle; his haggard cheeks began to crimson; his step regained the elasticity, and his eye the fire, of youth, which seemed forever to have departed.
Uncle Isaac said he was as fine-looking and good-hearted a fellow as ever the sun shone upon.
He learned, after upsetting several times, to manage the birch. Uncle Isaac permitted him to keep her at the island. Thus he had two boats, and when it was calm, would take her, paddle over to the main, and up the river, following all its windings. In one of these excursions, he discovered Pleasant Cove. Enraptured with the beauty of the spot, he carried his canoe around the fall, and paddled up the brook into the pond.
“Ben,” said he, on his return, “I have known people spend thousands of dollars to make a beautiful place, and not obtain anything half so fine as the place I have seen to-day. I mean to ask father to buy it. Would Charlie sell it?”
“When he sells himself,” replied Sally. “Besides, there’s another party as much attached to it as he is.”
“Well, I mean to sketch it, at any rate.”
Matters went on thus pleasantly for some time. James would often start off, taking a luncheon, fishing-lines, cooking utensils, and be gone a day or two, sometimes longer, camping in the woods, sleeping at Captain Rhines’s or Uncle Isaac’s, just as it happened. Sometimes the first thing they would know of him, he would make his appearance at the breakfast-table, having come across in the night.
His parents, who were informed of his good doings by Captain Rhines, and especially of his friendship with Uncle Isaac, with that parental credulity ever prone to catch at the shadow of a hope, were greatly encouraged.