"I can't go on board now, Spickles," said Matt Randolph, in a very decided tone, and with an expression on his manly face which indicated that he did not wish to go, even if he could. "What's the reason you can't?" demanded Spickles, evidently very much dissatisfied with the decision of the other. "Because I have something else to do," added Matt. "I have to attend to my duties as closely here as though I were an officer in the navy, on sea-duty." "What's the use of being tied up as though you were a prisoner at Sing Sing?" asked Spickles, his disgust apparent on his rather brutal face. "Your father is as rich as mud, and there is no need of your being kept in a strait-jacket." "I am not kept in a strait-jacket," protested Matt, very warmly. "I think you are," returned Spickles, with a curling sneer on his thick lips. "When I saw you in New York a year ago, you told me what a big thing Lake Champlain was." "I still think it is the finest sheet of water in the world, and the region around it is a perfect paradise." "Paradise!" exclaimed the visitor from the metropolis. "You said there was lots of fun to be had here." "I find plenty of amusement for all the spare hours I have." "After what you said, I kept thinking of this place; and five of our fellows have come up here, and chartered a schooner for the summer. She is anchored out in the river; and now that we are here, you will not even go on board of her," continued Spickles, becoming more and more disgusted with the refusal of the captain of the Lily; for such he was, and his "class in sailing" were about ready to go on board of the schooner. "I am the skipper of that schooner you see out in the lake, and I have to go out in her in a short time," Matt explained. "Put it off; let the party wait till you come back," insisted the visitor. "We don't do things in that way here," added Matt, with a smile. "Tell them you are sick, and can't go," suggested Spickles. "But I am not sick." "You were not always above stretching the truth a little in an emergency." "I am now." Matt did not blush in saying it, either. "We are going to stay on the lake all summer, if we don't get tired of it," continued Spickles. "I depended upon having you with us, Matt; for we don't know much about the navigation in these waters, though we have the government charts." "I don't see how you could depend upon me, for I told you that I was under strict discipline in the Beech Hill Industrial School," argued Matt. "I can't come and go when I will." "Confound the Beech Hill Industrial School! Run away from it, and join our party for the summer." "I certainly shall not run away from it, for I am perfectly contented and happy here," replied Matt. "At least you will come on board of the La Motte?" "What's the La Motte?"