"What if I did?"
"Oh, Benjamin!"
"You needn't cry about it. Next time, you'd better not try to make a nobody out of me."
"Don't you think I've had trouble enough, without trying to make more for me?" sobbed the distressed mother.
"If you had told Lawry to give me the charge of the steamer, he would have done it," whined Ben.
"I shouldn't tell him any such thing!" replied Mrs. Wilford indignantly. "A pretty captain of a steamboat you would make! You are so tipsy now you can't hold your head up!"
"I'm as sober as you are."
Mrs. Wilford knew that it was useless to talk to a person in his condition, and she left him to sleep off the effect of his cups if he could, after the evil deed he had done. Full of sympathy for Lawry, under his great affliction, she left the house, and hastened down to the landing, to learn, if possible, the condition of the Woodville. Lawry and Ethan were in the wherry, returning to the shore, when she reached the landing.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted both of the boys, in unison, as Mrs.
Wilford came in sight.
"What now?" asked the anxious mother.