"To-day noon, just after you went to the house for me. I came right up to see you; but I found you had gone."
"Yes; I was so impatient to get that little steamer up here, that I couldn't wait any longer."
"And what a waste your haste has made!" laughed Mrs. Sherwood.
"There is our fine little steamer at the bottom of the lake."
"She may lie there, for all me," added Mr. Sherwood.
"I should not dare to put my foot on board of her again," said Miss
Fanny.
"Nor I," chimed in Fanny Jane.
"She isn't to blame, Mr. Sherwood," interposed Ethan French. "She worked as though she had been alive."
"No steamer could stand such a thump on the Goblins," added Lawry.
"I don't blame the boat, of course," replied Mr. Sherwood; "but this adventure has cured me of my love for steamboating. I don't want to see another one."
"Shall you let the Woodville lie there?" asked Lawry.