"Ho, for the match! Come, Dave, bring out your weapons; the boys are gathering."

Dave quickly obeyed Joe's summons, and the two friends, with bows and quivers, followed by Ralph and Ben, joined the archers. Fourteen boys composed the club, and at the time appointed they, as well as the spectators, were ready for the signal. Mr. Andrews kept the score, and there was great excitement as the shots were registered; but in spite of much loud talk the match ended satisfactorily to all outsiders, and to most of the participants, for Joe Chester won. A prolonged shout announced Joe's victory, not only to all on the island, but to vessels far out on the water.

Before the excitement had fairly abated, the signal for the rifle match was given, and away started the crowd to that part of the island where the targets were set for the marksmen. Ben being one of the best of the club, was particularly interested in this match, and he watched eagerly the movement of every rifle, longing for his own, and the chance to use it. Many rifles were offered to him, and every one urged him to join in the trial of skill; but his answer was, "No, indeed; I shan't risk my reputation now without any practice." Mr. Andrews kept the score here also, and although there were some hot disputes over the shots, Donald Parker was pronounced the winner of the prize.

"Now I'll try a rifle," exclaimed Ben.--"Here, Don, lend me yours."

Most of the boys were gathered in knots, eagerly discussing the match, but at the sound of Ben's firing they gathered around him.

"Hurrah for Ben!"

"That's a good one!"

"There's another!"

He fired the same number of shots as that allowed to the club, and the score was better than any made by the others, beating even that of the prize-winner.

"I thought I could do it," he said, with sparkling eyes, "but I didn't want to risk it in the match. Perhaps I couldn't have done it, either. I shouldn't have been so cool."

The boys were too excited over the long-talked-of matches to enter upon any other sport, and they gathered in knots on the ledges and in front of the tents, talking about this and that rifle or bow, or the scores of the different marksmen, comparing them with those of former matches.

"Come--to-morrow is packing-up day, and we've got to be up early.--and have all the fun we can before the steamboat swoops down on us."

"Like a wolf on the fold," added Fred.

"Oh, that dreadful monster!" cried Max. "If it would only forget to come."

"Or break its paddle-wheel," added Ned.

"Humph!" exclaimed Jonas, who was already beginning to pack baking-tins and things he did not intend to use. "If she doesn't come in time, you'll find yourself on short rations, I can tell you. We are on our last barrel of biscuits. Haven't flour enough for more than one batch of bread; and not a drop of treacle, even if we had the flour, for gingerbread."

"Nor any ginger, even if we had the treacle and flour," added Ben, with a mischievous twinkle of the eye. "Of course there is no ginger, Jonas was so generous with that in my tea."

The boys laughed, but Jonas, indifferent to that, continued his deficit list. "The coffee's gone, and the butter-tub is scraped clean."

"Mercy!" cried Dave. "This is getting melancholy. It's worse than Mother Hubbard's bare cupboard."

"Yes," added Joe with a sigh. "It's nothing but a howling wilderness here, and the sooner we get out of it the better. No, I'll take that back. I'm willing to live on blueberries if everything else gives out. The blueberries are plentiful still."

"Yes, and the clam-beds are not quite cleaned out," said Ben cheerily.

"A fellow that would starve on the edge of the clam-beds deserves to die."

"I suppose there are some fish left in the sea too," suggested Max.

"Yes, a few. Very likely those the tide carried off with our baskets, the day we had our freedom, came to life again, and are out of hospital by this time," said Joe.--"You can'............