Rudder Grange.

very much jileased with it . A great many other improvements were projected and carried out by him , and I AA as very much Avorried . He made a floAver-garden for Euphemia on the extreme forward-deck , ancl having borrowed a wheelbarroAv , he

Avheeled dozens of loads of arable dirt up our gang-plank ancl dumped them out on the deck . When he had covered the garden Avith a suitable depth of earth , he smoothed it off ancl then planted fiWerseeds . It Avas rather late in the season

, but most of them came up . I Avas pleased Avith the garden , but sorry I had not made it myself . One afternoon I got away from the office considerably earlier than usual , ancl I hurried home to enjoy the short period of

daylight that I should have before supper . It had been raining the clay before , and as the bottom of our garden leaked so that earthy Avater trickled down at one end of our bedroom , I intended to devote a short time to stuffing up the cracks in the

ceiling or bottom of the deck—whichever seems the most appropriate . But when I reached a bend in the river road , Avhence I always had the earliest A'iew of my establishment , I didn ' t haA'e that vieiv . I hurried on . Tbe nearer I approached the place where I lived , the more horror-stricken I became . There Avas no mistaking the fact .

The boat A . as not there ! In an instant the truth flashed upon me . The Avater was very high—tbe rain had SAvollen the river—my house had floated aAvay 1 It was Wednesday . On Wednesday

afternoons our boarder came home early . I clapped my hat tightly on my head and ground my teeth . " Confound that boarder ! " I thought . "He had been fooling Avith the anchor . He ahvays said it was of no use , ancl taking advantage of my absence , he has hauled it up , and has floated aAA'ay , ancl has gonegone with my wife ancl home ! "

Euphemia and " Rudder Grange" had gone off together—Avhere I knew not , — ancl with them that horrible suggester 1 I ran wildly along the bank . I called aloud , I shouted ancl hailed each passing craft—of Avhich there Avere only tAvo—but their crews must have been very inattentive to the Avoes of landsmen , or else they

did not hoar me , for they paid no attention to my cries . I met a fellow with an axe on his shoulder . I shouted to him before I reached him : " Hello ! did you see a boat—a house , I

mean , —floating up the river ? " ' A boat-house 1 " asked the man , "No , a house-boat , " I gasped . " Dicln ' t see ntithin' like it , '' said the man , and he passed on , to his wife ancl homono doubt . But me ! Ohwhere Avas

, , my Avife and my home ? I met several people , but none of them had seen a fug itive canal-boat . HOAV many thoughts came into my brain as I ran along that river road ! If that wretched boarder bad not taken the rudder

for an ironing table he might have steered in shore ! Again ancl again I confoundedas far as mental ejaculations could do ithis suggestions . I Avas rapidly becoming frantic Avhen I met a person who hailed me .

" Hello ! " he said , " are you after a canal-boat adrift ?" " Yes , " I panted . " I thought vou Avas , " he said . " You ¦

looked that Avay . Well , I can tell you where she is . She ' s stuck fast in the reeds at the loAver end o' Peter's Pint . " " Where ' s that ? " said I . " Oh , it ' s about a mile furder up . I seed her a-driftin' up Avith the tide—big flood

tide , to-day—ancl I thought I'd see somebody after her , afore long . Anything aboard ?" Anything ! I could not answer the man , Anything , indeed ! I hurried on up the river without

a word . Was the boat a Avreck ? I scarcely dared to think at all . The man called after me and I stopped . I could but stop , no matter what I might hear . " Hellomister" be said , " got any

to-, , bacco ?" I walked up to him . I took hold of him by the lapel of his coat . It was a dirty lapel , as I remember even now , but I didn't mind that . " Look here , " said I . "Tell me the

truth , I can bear it , Was that vessel Avrecked ?" The man looked at me a little queerly . I could not exactly interpret his expression . s