Though he did not retire from active business, he had taken a
partner, which enabled him to spend a part of his time during the
summer at his country house on the lake.

Mr. Grant had gone to Europe a second time, to be absent during the
summer, and Miss Fanny and Fanny Jane had accepted Bertha's
invitation to spend a few weeks at Port Rock. A splendid time had
been promised them by Mrs. Sherwood, who had made extensive
preparations for their visit. The arrangements included a novelty
which offered a very brilliant prospect to the party, and excited the
imagination even of the older ones to the highest pitch.

This novelty was nothing less than a miniature steamboat, which had
already been christened the _Woodville_, in honor of the home of
the owner's lady. She was a splendid little craft, and as perfect in
her machinery and appointments as any steamer that ever floated. She
was a side-wheel boat, sixty feet in length, by twelve feet beam.
Forward there were a regular wheel-house, a small kitchen, and other
rooms usually found in a steamer. Abaft the wheels there were a
saloon and two staterooms. Of course all these apartments, as well as
the cabin below, were very contracted in their dimensions; but they
were fitted up in the most elegant style.

The _Woodville_ had cost a great deal of money; but her owner
expected to realize a full return for it in the enjoyment she would
afford him, his wife, and their friends. She had been sent up the
Hudson, and through the canal to Whitehall, and thence to Port Henry,
where she had arrived on the day before Lawry Wilford's return to
Port Rock.