Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-07-05

nway-probally by bang from the nose
of some badly stccred boat in u long past
timc-that II boy twice us big rs he was
could wrigglc through the hole!
1t is only just to Teddy to state that
he did debate briefly with himself the
proprietary % taking advantage Of his
discovery, and it also is but just to add
that on this occasion his logic and his
conclusion were equally unsound. Miss
Ruth frequently had forbidden him To
climb over her fences, he admitted, but
she never, he reasoned, hal said word
about forbiddng him TO 90 through holes
i'll her doors. Indeed, SO far from lav-
ing said that he must not enter the oil
house, he had her own word for it that
perhaps some day he might 90 in there.
Very likely, he thought, she might have
meant to take him in ;hat very day, and
had forgotten about it, in which c:lse of
course, she would he glad TO iind that her
forSctiuncss had been sci right By his
own energetic action. OF course, this
settled the matter; he would be very
sorry, he thought, that Miss Ruth should
be uncomfortable on his account,
lie gave Il look up and down the river
TO see if anybody iii II boat was in sight -
curio,sly anxious look, considering that
he had so well convinced himself that
what he WAS about to do was Just what
Miss Ruth wanted him 10 do-;ind then,
having assured himself that the coast was
clear, he slipped out of the water and
across the bit Of bare sand, and through
the hole.
lie found himself in something like Il
little open dock i'll the floor OF the oil
house; evidently Il place where, in for
MGR lines, II boat had been kept Steps,
black and rotten with age, led to the
level of the floor. Upon these slippery
steps Teddy went ginSerly. Ills first OBJ
jcct Of investigation was the shadowy
place under the stairway He found hat
he had been right. II was Il cannon. Il
little ix-poundcr, such ms whalcrS used
to carry To fire signals with and il was :.
regular little beauty.
II he only could manage To get the us,.
of that cannon for the approaching Fourth
of July, he thought how glorously coul,i
he celebrate that glorio,iS day
lie did not stop To examine the other
interesting things which were scattered
about him. With these, thanks to his
frequent pccpings through the tracks, hr
already was tolcrably familiar. Til" slil-
loft was an undiscovered country that he
longcd To explore, SO IN the stairway that
led 10 1t he went, two steps at Il time
The loft was far lighter than the room
below, for the sunbcams came through
the tracks in the roof rs well as through
the cracks in The walls II was great
bare place, with some old snils piled up in
one corner, some sail making gear still
lying ON Il little bench, and some chalk
marks still on the floor that doubtless
showed the exact cut of the Harmony
Homes last sui; of sails.
Teddy next caught sight OF II delight;
FIJI little tub OF Il boat, Standing close To
The side wall ut the end of the building
nearest Ia the water, carefully checked M
on blocks so that it stood on M even
keel. The oars, and - little mast with
The sail wrapped around it, lay fore and
aft on the thwarts; and the rrldcr, all
really to be shipped, was lying in the
sicrn-shrcts
Runnng tackle was rove 10 rings in
the bow and stern, and to Stout hooks in
the ridgc-polc of the roof. The ends Of
the lines were coilcl away neatly over
Delaying pins III two of the upright
beams.
Then Teddy perceived that n great
trap-door, rugged with conmtcr-w weights.
opened in the lloor just over the little
dock below. Obviously. this was the
Identical boat for which the dock had
been built.
So here the boat was, in perfect order
Except her seams had opened little,
and that would be all right when she had
been day or two in the water-and with
everything ready for lowering her down
into the dock once more, and away for II
jolly cruise.
AS he thought of what Tun he could
have in that boat-alon. with Noah
i}arkum and Lem lIarbud and Pud Nyc
and, perhaps, Sam Wyburn--hc forgot
everything else in the world; even the
little brass cannon and the Fourth OF
July.
lie wanted 70 60 right t, work nj
swinging the boat MP by the tackle and
then lowering her through the trap door,
but he found, 10 his surprise, by the way
that the light WAS fading that the sun
must he nearly down. Accordingly he
went down stairs again, and found that
the tide was half in, and tina; the hole in
the door was foot under water.
There WAS Il pin that held the door
down, and when he had pulled this out
lie found that he could raise the door
casily-for it, also, was hung with coun-
tcrwcights-so he got oat without diving.
and pulled the door down again. Even
ut high tide he saw the wafer would not
be much more than two feet deep Now
! that the door was not fastened he would
roll up his trousers and wade in whenever
he chose 10.
After he had got out of the oil house
and into his clothes again, Teddy had
some twingcs of conscience in regard e
the liberties that he had bccn taking Will
Miss Ruth Marbles property Thcs,
twingcs were but feeble on The following
morning, however, and he scarcely coult