sling his hammock, he finally crawled under one of the small boats on
the main deck, and at last fell asleep.

The next thing he was conscious of was a terrible chill, a sensation of
drowning, and gasping for breath. As he woke he heard a gruff voice
say:

"If that don't fetch him nothin' won't."

As Ralph opened his eyes, several seamen were standing about, laughing,
one of whom held a half emptied bucket of water.

The boy's head ached and he was thoroughly drenched and miserable.

"Up you get!" said Long Tom, pausing in his walk to and fro in the
waist of the schooner, "Time you were gettin' breakfast on the cabin
table. Cap'n always raises thunder when breakfast is late."

Ralph, on rising to his feet, nearly pitched down again, being brought
up with a round turn in the lee scuppers.

"Easy now, and get 'e sea legs on," suggested Bludson, who was
balancing himself dexterously in his walk.

The wind had stiffened, and a crisp plain of dancing white caps met
Ralph's gaze as he steadied himself by the bulwarks. The Curlew, under
a single reefed fore and mainsail and a single jib, was gracefully
rising and falling to the rhythmic motion of long and ponderous waves.

The unaccustomed roll bewildered the lad from the mountains, the