TO those who may take up this volume of the Elm Island stories, without having read the previous one, with which it is more intimately connected, we would observe, that in that is chronicled the success of Lion Ben while endeavoring to make his lumber carry itself to a foreign market, by building it into a vast raft, protected from the action of winds and waves by the partial framework of a vessel, through which, nevertheless, the tide ebbed and flowed, and rendered somewhat more buoyant by empty casks, which were also intended to compensate for the soaking of the lumber.