in black smoke, out of which leaps
the white puff of the cannon, showing that the gunners are still at work.

"See! the gunboat that was aground is getting off! that's a brave tug
that's handling her!" cries Frank "O!"--an exclamation of surprise and
wonder. For just then the gunboat, swinging around so that she can bring
her guns to bear, lets fly her broadside, dropping shot and shell right
into the smoking battery.

"It's about time," says Jack Winch, "for us boys to go ashore and clean
the rebels out. I'm a gitting tired of this slow work."

"You'll get ashore soon enough, and have enough to do when you get
there," says Atwater. "There are strong batteries towards the centre of
the islands, that'll have to be taken when we go in."

"Abe's afraid," mutters Jack to some comrades near him. "Did ye see him,
and Frank, and Seth Tucket, reading their Testaments?"

"It was the 'Lady of the Lake' Seth was reading," says Harris. "He
carries it in his pocket, and pitches into it odd spells."

"Winch don't know the Lady of the Lake from the Bible!" chimes in
Tucket's high nasal voice.

"Yes, I do, too! The Lady of the Lake, that's one of Bryon's poems!
S'pose I don't know?"

"O, perfectly!" sneers Ellis, amid the laughter Jack's blunder elicits.
"And no doubt you'll soon find out who the cowards are among us, if you
don't know already."

"What's that, afire, away up the sound, close into the main land?" asks
the phlegmatic Atwater.

"I swan, ef 'tan't one of the rebel steamers! She's got disabled, and
they've run her ashore. She's all a sheet of fire now!"

"What's that saucy little tug around here for?"

"Burnside's aboard of her. He's coming to see if we're all right. We
shall land soon," says Gray.

"See!" cries Frank; "our gunboats are shelling the shore, to make a
landing-place for us. I wouldn't like to be in the woods there!"

"I guess Frank wouldn't!" observes Jack. "But I would; I'd like no better
fun than to rush right in and skedaddle the rebels with the bayonet;
that's the way to do it!"

"The woods are afire! Our shells have set them afire!" cries Ellis.
"Look! there come the rebel steamers again, down the western shore. They
think they can get down at us, now our gunboats are busy off there."

"When the cat's away the mice will play," says Tucket. "But the kittens
are after 'em!"

"There goes Burnside's tug to see what the row is!"

"The battery scarcely fires at all now," says Frank, looki