"But we don't any of us like this kind of a tea!" cried Rudolf
angrily.

"Then all the more for us that does," said Prowler, and he snatched
the dish in his turn away from Growler and emptied all that was left
of it on his own plate. Since there was nothing else for the children
to do, they sat and watched the two mates eat, all of them feeling
decidedly cross, especially Peter. When every drop was finished and
every crumb licked up, Growler said to Prowler, "Time for a nap, old
boy," and without so much as a look in the children's direction the
two rude fellows turned tail and marched off arm in arm to their
bunks.

"Well, they _are_ nice!" cried Ann. "And what are _we_ going to do, I
would like to know?"

"What we are going to do," said Rudolf thoughtfully, "is probably to
be shipwrecked. Oh, not _right_ away," he added quickly as he saw how
frightened his little sister looked. "But there's land close ahead, as
sure as sure can be, and, if I'm not much mistaken, Toddles and Towser
have both gone to sleep at the wheel."

It was true. The two common sea-cats had left the wheel to take care
of itself and had curled themselves up in a soft round ball on the
deck for a nap from which the children found it impossible to arouse
them.

"I will try to steer and also mind the sheet, I think that's what it's
called," said Rudolf, "but as I don't know _much_ about sailing a boat
except what I've read in books, and you and Peter don't know