The cover image was restored by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Copyright, 1900.
BY
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY.
ELSIE'S YOUNG FOLKS.
CHAPTER I.
It was a lovely summer day, bright and clear,but the heat so tempered—there on the coastof Maine—by the delicious sea breeze that itwas delightful and exhilarating. The ownerand passengers of the Dolphin had forsakenher more than a fortnight ago, and since spenttheir days and nights at a lovely villa on shorethere in Bar Harbor; but now no longer ableto resist the attractions of the beautiful sea,the most of them had come aboard, and weresitting, standing, or roaming about the deck.
"Oh, I'm so glad to be in our own dear seahome again!" cried Elsie Raymond. "Aren'tyou, Ned?"
"Yes; though we have been having a splendidtime on shore in Bar Harbor."
"Yes, so we have; but as we expect to beback again in a few days, we needn't fret at allabout leaving it."
"No, nor we needn't if we were just goingback to Woodburn, our own beautiful home—certainlya better place than this in fall andwinter, anyhow."
"But I'm glad to have a sail again," saidElsie.
"Brother Max says we'll soon see someplaces where they had sea fights in our twowars with England," remarked Ned, with satisfaction.
"Oh, does he? I mean to ask papa orgrandma to tell us about them," exclaimedElsie, in tones of excitement.
"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Ned. "But the menare taking up the anchor," he added hastily,"and I must see that first. Come," catchinghis sister's hand and hurrying her along to agood position from which to view the operation.
That duly attended to, they sought out theirgrandma, who happened to be at the moment[3]sitting a little apart from the others, andmade their request. She smilingly consentedto tell them all she could recall on the subjectthat would be interesting to them, and biddingthem seat themselves close beside her shebegan.
"Your father has told me that we are nowgoing out to the extreme eastern point of theState—and of our country—the United States.West Quoddy Head is its name now, but invery early times it was called Nurumbega. In1580 John Walken, in the service of Sir HumphreyGilbert, conducted an expedition to itsshores, and reached the Penobscot River. In1603 two vessels, the Speedwell and the Discoverer,entered the Penobscot Bay and themouth of a river—probably the Saco. Aboutthree years after that two French Jesuits, withseveral families, settled on Mount DesertIsland. A few years later some twenty-fiveFrench colonists landed on Mount Desert andfounded a settlement called St. Saviour.