ot been able
to capture without the use of his hands. "What have you got there?"

"Here's a boat apiece," explained Helen. "We must each put a tiny flag
of some sort on it so that we can tell which is which."

"This way?" George asked. "I've put a pin through a scrap of corn husk
and stuck it on to the end of this craft."

"That's right. We must find something different for each one. Mine is a
black-alder berry. See how red and bright it is?"

It was not hard for each to find an emblem.

"Watch me hoist the admiral's flag at the mainmast," said Roger, but the
match that he set up for a mast caught fire almost as soon as the
candles were lighted in the miniature fleet. His flag fell overboard,
however, and was not injured.

"See that?" he commented. "That just proves that the flag of the U. S. A.
can never perish," and the others greeted his words with cheers.

It was a pretty sight--the whole fleet afloat, each bit of candle
burning clearly and each little craft tossing on the waves that Dr.
Watkins produced by gently tipping the tub.

"This is also an attempt to gain some knowledge of the future," said
Helen. "We must watch these boats and see which ones stay close together
and which go far apart, and whether any of them are shipwrecked, and
which ones seem to have the smoothest voyage."

"Della's and mine are sticking together just the way our nuts did,"
cried Ethel Blue, and she slipped her hand into Della's and gave it a
little squeeze.

After the loss of its mainmast at the very beginning Roger's craft had
no more mishaps. It slid alongside of James's and together they bobbed
gently across life's stormy seas.

"It looks as if you and I were going into partnership, old man," James
interpreted their behavior.

The other boats seemed to need no especial companionship but floated on
independently, only Gregory's coming to an untimely end from a heavy
wave that washed over it and capsized it.

"I seem to hear a summons from the Witches' Cave," murmured Helen in an
awed whisper as a sound like the wind whistling through pine trees fell
on their ears, resolving itself as they listened into the words, "Come!
Come! Come!"

Quietly they arose and tiptoed their way toward the dining room. They
could only enter it by penetrating the thicket of boughs that barred the
door. As they came nearer the voice retreated--"Almost as if it were
going into the kitchen," whispered Margaret to Tom who happened to be
next t