The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her head right, and then lay on their oars.

The river was not high, so there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.

• The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, “looking his last” upon
• the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
• “she” could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips. It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson Island
• beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he “looked his last” with a
• broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last
• too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the

current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two oclock in the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed their freight.

Part of the little raft belongings consisted of an old sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open air in good weather, as became outlaws.

1. They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
2. steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
3. bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn “pone”
4. stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
5. wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
6. island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
7. return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
8. its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
9. and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.

When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass, filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting camp-fire.

The wide opens spaces, accommodating inns and restaurants, and the echoes of Gram Parsons draw them to the desert each year. But during this visit, a lively 3-year-old is in the mix.

Reporting from Twentynine Palms

Moodys Investors Service and Fitch Ratings reduce their credit ratings for the oil giant, which estimates the cleanup and containment could cost it $3 billion.Some oil industry analysts say BP might have to sell assets to pay for efforts to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, including the drilling of a relief well, above, and clean up the mess. Others say the company has enough cash to foot the bill. BP is becoming the new pariah of the oil industry and faces the possibility of having to sell assets if it cant show some success in the coming weeks at stemming the flow of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, Wall Street analysts and energy experts say.

The fallout from the deadly Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in April continued Thursday, when credit rating firms Moodys Investors Service and Fitch Ratings reduced their assessments of BPs long-term debt.Fitch cut the oil giant to AA from AA-plus, citing the potential for civil and criminal charges and saying “risks to both BPs business and financial profile continue to increase.Fitch estimated that the company could spend as much as $3 billion on cleanup and containment this year. The federal government Thursday sent BP its first bill covering oil-spill response costs so far, totaling $69 million.

Moodys lowered BP to AA2 from AA1 and put it on review, which might lead to another downgrade. Moodys said costs related to the protracted oil leak will “weigh significantly” on BPs cash and “constrain its ability to focus on other key areas of the company business.

“It´s just so much fun for me,” Hart, wearing her lucky outfit

music director of the youth ensemble (comprising musicians ages 12 to 22) and resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, has trained his charges exceptionally well. The string, woodwind, brass and percussion sections also received coaching from members of the New York Philharmonic before the concert, which was a benefit for the Riverside Food Pantry.

Mr. Stare inspired the musicians to impressive heights here, opening with a polished and suitably spirited rendition of Brahms´s “Academic Festival Overture.” Brahms described the work

His solution was odd. He rented a Hammond B3: an organ favored by jazz musicians (and some 1960s rock bands) but not ideal, in timbre and range, for classical works. So out went the classics, for the most part. Instead Mr. Carpenter brought along a drummer, Marion Felder, a recent Juilliard graduate who performs with the Count Basie Orchestra, and played a freewheeling, virtuosic jazz set.

That the concert now had little to do with the recording it was meant to promote seemed not to matter to anyone, least of all Mr. Carpenter, who spent the hour before the performance milling through the crowd, stopping at every table in the club to introduce himself (“Hi, I am Cameron,” he said, holding out a hand) and chat. This was his party, and he was determined to enjoy every minute it. You almost had the feeling that he would have brought you a beer on request. At curtain time he threw a jacket studded with small mirrors over his black T-shirt and took to the keys.

It was clear in Mr. Carpenters opening selection, a rhythmically supple account of Coltranes “Moments Notice,” that he had a feeling for this music. That should not be surprising: organists, unlike most classical instrumentalists, are schooled in improvisation, and Mr. Carpenter has an extroverted performing style well suited to the business of finding the possibilities in a chord progression or a melody.

Most of his set was devoted to Gershwin songs, starting with “Love Is Here to Stay,” in which he augmented the Hammond sound with the varied timbres of a Yamaha synthesizer, and “I Got Rhythm,” which he played as a widely ranging set of variations (including one for pedals only). “Do It Again,” “The Man I Love,” “Fascinatin´ Rhythm” and “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” and Henry Mancini´s “Whistling Away the Dark,” were also dissected and reassembled with unpredictable metrical and coloristic twists.

Mr. Carpenter´s single straightforward classical performance, late in the set, helped to explain his decision to play jazz. His reading of Bach chorale prelude “Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland” had the right impulses, but the organs tone did not suit the piece. In any case, Mr. Carpenter had a more interesting approach to the classics up his sleeve. In a pair of Bach “Well-Tempered Clavier” preludes and fugues, and in Chopins C sharp minor Etude , he moved back and forth between straightforward readings and, with Mr. Felders support, vital, spirited, inventively reharmonized elaborations.

Was this a crossover concert? Maybe. But Mr. Carpenters jazz performances do not require special pleading. Move over, Renee Fleming.

But there are other aspects to Loesser besides the wisecracking pre-Beat poet of “Guys and Dolls.” And in “Heart and Soul” Ms. Oberlin concentrates on Loesser´s softer-edged zaniness and on his unjustly neglected romantic side. Several of Loesser´s great ballads

Copland´s “Music for the Theater” (1925) was not composed for theatrical use at all, but for the concert hall; the Boston Symphony, under Serge Koussevitzky, gave the piece its premiere. But the work is steeped in the pop conventions of its time. The fast movements, especially, draw on jazz moves, and are meant to swing