it was best to eat before we started. That bunch is always hungry.

They said it was punk coffee, but that was because they didn't bring
enough to go around.

"Don't laugh at the coffee," I told them, "you may be old and weak
yourselves some day." I made some flapjacks, too, and then we started.

We didn't have to do much work because the ebb was running good and
strong, and we just sat around the deck with our feet dangling over,
and pushed her off with our scout staffs whenever she ran against the
shores. She didn't keep head on, but that was no matter as long as she
went, and pretty soon (I guess it must have been about seven o'clock)
we went waltzing into Bridgeboro River.

And then was when we made a crazy mistake.

Just for a minute we forgot that the tide would be running down the
river instead of up. If we had only remembered that, three or four of
us could have gone ashore with a rope and tied her in the channel,
which ran along the near shore. Then all we would have had to do would
have been to sit around and wait for it to turn, so we could drift up
to Bridgeboro with it.

But just when we were floating out of the creek, we forgot all about
what the tide would do to us, unless we were on the job and sure enough
it caught us and sent us whirling around and away over on to the flats.

"Good night!" I said when I heard her scrape.