watch the result of the race. "Mind your timbers, Mivins! Back your
top-sails, O'Riley; mind how he yaws!"

Then there was a momentary silence of breathless expectation. The two
men seemed about to meet with a shock that would annihilate both, when
Mivins bounded to one side like an indiarubber ball. O'Riley shot past
him like a rocket, and the next instant went head foremost into the pool
of water.

This unexpected termination to the affair converted the intended huzzah
of the men into a yell of mingled laughter and consternation as they
hastened in a body to the spot; but before they reached it, O'Riley's
head and shoulders reappeared, and when they came up he was standing on
the margin of the pool blowing like a walrus.

"Oh! then, but it _is_ cowld!" he exclaimed, wringing the water from his
garments. "Och! where's the ball? give me a kick or I'll freeze! so I
will."

As he spoke the drenched Irishman seized the ball from Mivins's hands
and gave it a kick that sent it high into the air. He was too wet and
heavy to follow it up, however, so he ambled off towards the ship as
vigorously as his clothes would allow him, followed by the whole crew.



CHAPTER VIII.

_Fred and the doctor go on an excursion in which, among other strange
things, they meet with red snow and a white bear, and Fred makes his