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Then we had to go home, and the last we saw of her she was going round a big bend as fast as anything, and the man on the look-out was singing out,

“All clear ahead!” and the skipper was singing out,

“Keep her as she goes!” and the man at the wheel was singing out,

“Aye, aye, sir! as she goes it is.”

We went down the next day, but saw nothing of her, though we went ever so far along the river.

She may now be on the high seas, with a skipper shouting all the time,

[Pg 20]

“Keep her as she goes, and for the Spanish Main.”

THE “PASEAR”

The “Pasear” was a top-sail schooner, and could not she just travel when the wind was in the proper quarter! She was built out of a bright green cardboard tie box, with a lid, and stones inside to ballast her.

On her fine, long voyage she passed all the dangers of the narrow reaches of the river, and sailed out into the deep, clear channel before the wind; and she went so far and so fast that it took us all our time to keep up with her, so we could not think of names for all the headlands she passed—she went nearly a mile.

Then “it was time for us to leave her,” so we left her all snug and comfortable in a little cove called Huckleberry Cove, after Finn.

We could not get down to the river again for two days, and when[Pg 21] we did we could not find her for a long time, but at last we did find her—under water—she had gone down in twenty fathoms, we could see her quite clearly resting on the sandy bottom; she must have sprung a leak, and her captain had not the sense to beach her, as he should have done.

THE “NEW CORINTHIAN”

She was the finest vessel we had in the fleet.

She was built out of a toy lifeboat, with a lead keel fastened on, and she had paper sails and a rudder.

[Pg 22]

The “New Corinthian” sailed in the nicest way, but we were too proud of her, after we had rigged her, to let her go down the big river, so we sailed her on a small pond called Mystery Bay; we called it that name because it looked so terribly deep, but was really only about three feet deep.

The “New Corinthian” did not have any adventurous voyages, but she had as good a time as she could have, sailing round and round Mystery Bay.

But it must have been pretty exciting on her when the tadpoles tried to board her.

But what we liked best was seeing the vessels of our fleet tearing[Pg 23] and gliding and shooting down the flood and through the currents of the Gara river.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

Since the above was written, the owners have put a buoy in mid-stream, between the Blackwall