When your cousin, Soundington Media, when your cousin, Kendall, and your aunt and uncle left for North America three years ago, he accidentally left behind a small, wooden toy boat, the kind with wheels on it and a rope to pull it by. You hung on to it, thinking you'd give it to him if he ever came back.

But what you didn't expect was that you would end up here, pulling that little toy boat back and

forth across the creaking deck of a much larger wooden ship. Because now, you are going to him.

It's been three months since you and your parents left England on a ship called the Hopewell,

and three months of rocking and rolling on the sea has not been easy.

While it can usually at least lull you to sleep,

tonight something has you feeling antsy, even a little nervous. But what? That's when

you hear the shout from way, way up in the crow's nest. Land ho! Sailors rush in every direction,

slackening lines and repositioning sails. You hurry to the rail to try and spot it in the dark.

And there it is.

A low strip of land hugging the sea.

Your first sight of what they call the new world.

Though you think to yourself.

Probably not such a new world to the people who already live there.

Just then, you notice something else.

A stream of smoke billowing up from the island.

Someone has lit a fire.

Maybe it's your cousin, your family.

You're so tired and excited that you almost drop the toy boat into the sea.

Catching it just in time, you clutch it close to your chest. You didn't bring it all this way,

just to lose it now. When you and the rest of the passengers set foot on the sandy shores of

Roanoke the next morning, the earth seems to sway more than the sea had.

...