he following day. The
oyster pirates, a fleet of a dozen sloops, were lying at anchor on
what was known as the "Deserted Beds." The _Coal Tar Maggie_ came
sloshing into their midst with a light breeze astern, and they crowded
on deck to see us. Nicholas and I had caught the spirit of the crazy
craft, and we handled her in most lubberly fashion.

"Wot is it?" some one called.

"Name it 'n' ye kin have it!" called another.

"I swan naow, ef it ain't the old Ark itself!" mimicked the Centipede
from the deck of the _Ghost_.

"Hey! Ahoy there, clipper ship!" another wag shouted. "Wot's yer
port?"

We took no notice of the joking, but acted, after the manner of
greenhorns, as though the _Coal Tar Maggie_ required our undivided
attention. I rounded her well to windward of the _Ghost_, and Nicholas
ran for'ard to drop the anchor. To all appearances it was a bungle,
the way the chain tangled and kept the anchor from reaching the
bottom. And to all appearances Nicholas and I were terribly excited as
we strove to clear it. At any rate, we quite deceived the pirates, who
took huge delight in our predicament.

[Illustration: "The Centipede and the Porpoise doubled up on the cabin
in paroxysms of laughter."]

But the chain remained tangled, and amid all kinds of mocking advice
we drifted down upon and fouled the _Ghost_, whose bowsprit poked
square through our mainsail and ripped a hole in it as big as a barn
door. The Centipede and the Porpoise doubled up on the cabin in
paroxysms of laughter, and left us to get clear as best we could.
This, with much unseamanlike performance, we succeeded in doing, and
likewise in clearing the anchor-chain, of which we let out about three
hundred feet. With only ten feet of water under us, this would permit
the _Coal Tar Maggie_ to swing in a circle six hundred feet in
diameter, in which circle she would be able to foul at least half the
fleet.

The oyster pirates lay snugly together at short hawsers, the weather
being fine, and they protested loudly at our ignorance in putting out
such an unwarranted length of anchor-chain. And not only did they
protest, for they made us heave it in again, all but thirty feet.

Having sufficiently impressed them with our general lubberliness,
Nicholas and I went below to congratulate ourselves and to cook
supper. Hardly had we finished the meal and washed the dishes, when a
skiff ground against the _Coal Tar Maggie's_ side, and heavy feet
trampled on