When Harry Brackett had ventured finally to return to his father’s home, he had not received that fond welcome that one might expect from an indulgent parent. In fact, Squire Brackett was so incensed at having been led to make the exhibition of himself in the store before his fellow townsmen that he stormed roundly at his son, and he made some remarks about having wasted his money for the last few years in sending young Brackett to the city to school, an assertion which perhaps Harry Brackett knew the full truth of even better than the squire. “Now,” said the squire at length, “let’s see if you can’t make yourself of some use, instead of just spending my money. You get Tom Dakin and Ed Sanders and John Hart, and take the _Seagull_ and get down there in the Thoroughfare and see if you can’t raise up that yacht that those young scamps wrecked there last fall. She’s abandoned, and she belongs to anybody that can get her. I’d just like to fetch her back here and rig her up handsome, and let them see what they might have done. I’ll show them a thing or two. “Now you work smart,” continued the squire, “and get that boat, and I’ll give her to you to use while you are at home; and I’ll get John Hart to teach you how to sail her. And see here, don’t you go fooling around with the _Seagull_ any. You let John Hart sail her. That was a pretty story you told me about winning races around Marblehead! Now clear out and see what you can do.” It might be said that if young Harry Brackett had had any knowledge of boat-sailing he could not have gained it from the squire, for, whereas that gentleman had property interests in several sailing-craft, by way of business, he knew nothing of seamanship himself, and was invariably seasick when he went out in rough water. Harry Brackett was not wholly disinclined to the task imposed upon him, although he had certain misgivings as to how it would coincide with the commission imparted to him by the man, Carleton, whom he had met at Bellport. He figured, however, that the _Surprise_, if she could be floated, would be worth vastly more than the promised two hundred dollars. So he went about the village hunting up the youths his father had named. These three were rough fellows, whose worth the squire had well in mind in selecting them. They were strong and able-bodied, older by some years than Harvey and his companions; youths who went alternately on short fishing-voyages and hung about the village at other times, ready equally for work or mischief. The four accordingly embarked at evening and sailed down to the Thoroughfare that night. Great was their surprise to find, on coming to anchor, that the yacht they had expected to see deep under water lay out on shore, with evidences of having been worked upon.