on his
back!"

"Mercy on us!" said Aunt Amanda.

"Is it really true?" said Freddie.

"On due consideration," said the Churchwarden, "I think Toby's right."

"Hi believe 'e is!" said Mr. Punch. "Blimy if I ever rode on the back of
a fish before! Now 'e's got us on 'is back, what's 'e going to do with
us?"

"We're moving!" cried Freddie.

"So we are!" said Aunt Amanda.

"Blamed if we ain't," said Toby.

The mattress craft was in fact moving; very slowly, indeed, but still
moving; and it was moving in the opposite direction to the fish's tail,
which could be seen now and then under the water, waving back and forth
like the tail of a swimming fish.

"If this don't beat all," said Toby. "That fish down there has certainly
got his fin hooked into our mattress, and he's swimming along with us on
top of him. I've seen a snail crawlin' with his shell on top of him, but
a fish with a load of mattresses and live-stock is a new thing to me!"

"I'm the captain," said Aunt Amanda, "and my orders is to sit as still
as you can and see where he's taking us to."

"Ay, ay, sir," said the Churchwarden. "I mean, ay, ay, ma'am."

The party huddled on top of the mattresses sat as still as mice, hardly
daring to breathe. Their little craft continued to move gently through
the water. They expected each moment that the fish would free himself,
but evidently his fin had embedded itself so firmly in one of the bottom
mattresses that he could not get loose; he went on swimming with his
load on his back.

Hour after hour they waited to feel their craft stop; but hour after
hour it moved gently and slowly across the surface of the sea. They
settled themselves more comfortably against each other, and spoke very
little. No one noticed that their raft was now much lower in the water.

The air was warm, the moonlight and the silence were extremely soothing,
and the motion of the raft was gentle and languorous. Freddie's head
sank against Aunt Amanda's shoulder, and his eyes closed; and in another
moment he was asleep. Aunt Amanda herself nodded, and her eyes closed;
she was asleep too. Toby yawned, and leaned heavily against the Sly Old
Codger; his eyes closed, and--in short, every eye closed, and every
frame relaxed heavily against its neighbor, and at last, doubled over in
a closely huddled group in the exact center of their mattresses, the
whole party slept; each and every one.

The raft went on steadily and quietly through the wate