“DON’T do it, Dick!” pleaded Dolly.

“Girls always spoil sport!” growled Mark, as he saw Dick ready to give in.

“We shan’t hurt the boat! Don’t be silly, Dolly. Even if the sails do get wet, Tom can get fresh ones. And it will be better for him to know whether it will sail or not.” And the twins departed for the seashore with the boat in their hands.

How they wished they had taken Dolly’s advice, when they saw the ship, which had sailed so gallantly at first in the little cove, break from its moorings and drift out to sea!

Tom had worked very hard for the prize of £2 offered in a weekly paper for the best-made boat, not only for the sake of the money, but because the toys were to go to the Home for Orphans. And now all his work was gone.

“Oh! well, it can’t be helped,” he said good-naturedly, when his first feeling of anger had passed; “but I wish you chaps would leave my things alone.”

“But it can be helped,” said Dolly, rushing in. “See! a fisherman brought it to shore, and it isn’t a bit broken.”

So the orphans got the boat after all, and had great fun sailing it in the river near the Home; and what was perhaps more wonderful, Tom won the prize.