along all
right, but it would be a mile swim, though we could take turns at
it."

"I'd rather swim all the way," said Ned, "than to climb into this
canoe once, from the river. But what's the use? There's no grass at
the camp and the water is too deep for an infant like Baby. Why not
tie him here for to-night? Then to-morrow we will take him down to
that big bay and make a nursery for him in a shallow little cove
that I saw there. It's full of nice manatee grass and we can put
stakes across the mouth, or pasture Baby at the end of a rope. But
what are we going to do with him, after that?"

"Don't borrow trouble, Ned. That question will come up later. The
next thing for us to do is to tie this little beast. So trot out
that harpoon line."

Dick untied the harpoon line, which was kept lashed to a thwart in
the canoe, and, after getting overboard, carefully fastened the
painter of the canoe to a mangrove root. The boys made a harness for
the little manatee of one end of the line, by making one loop around
the body of the baby, just behind his flippers, another around his
tail and then connecting the two. The other end of the harpoon line
was then fastened to a mangrove tree on the bank and the baby was
turned loose. Dick steadied the canoe while Ned climbed aboard, but
when Ned tried to steady it for Dick to get in it, there was a
capsize. Dick apologized for his clumsiness and Ned complained that
he hated to get wet. The next attempt was successful and the boys
were soon eating venison and drinking coffee at their camp. They
were tired and talkative when they lay down for the night, and both
went to sleep in the middle of a sentence.

The boys hurried through their breakfast the next morning, anxious
to see their captive, which they found where they left him, quite
friendly and almost unafraid. Dick took the line in the stern of the
canoe, while Ned paddled from the bow. Baby was tractable and
allowed himself to be towed, even swimming himself. He behaved best
when his head was brought beside the canoe and seemed to like the
petting that Dick gave him. When the baby had been tied in the
little cove that Ned had discovered, in such a way that he could
range over the whole of his nursery, the boys decided not to put a
row of poles across the mouth of it. Dick thought it was too much
work and Ned said it was no use, because Ma Manatee would knock the
whole business over the tree-tops with one gentle little whack of
he