ns drowned?"

"Well, sticking, as it were, to the truth, they were not," replied the
old Sea-Dog, very gruffly.

"Then, why don't you say so in the story?" said Davy.

Now, this was pretty bold of him, for old Sea-Dogs don't much like to
have fault found with their verses, and this particular old Sea-Dog
evidently did not like it at all, for, after staring at Davy for a
moment, he began walking slowly around him in such a threatening manner
that Davy, thinking that perhaps he meant to jump on him from behind,
began also turning so as to keep his face always toward the Dog.
Meanwhile, as you may well believe, he began to feel very sorry that he
had said anything about the verses.

Presently the old Sea-Dog broke into a clumsy canter, like a weary old
circus horse, and as he went heavily around the circle he began to
explain about the story. "You see there's more of it," said he, wheezing
dreadfully as he galloped; "but then I haven't had the time to put the
rest of it in rhyme. It's all about old Thompson's crew as stayed aboard
the 'Soaking Sue,' and saw the skippers floating by and hauled 'em out
and got 'em dry, and when the little creeturs cried they gave 'em
something warm inside, and being as they had no bed they stowed 'em in a
bunk instead,"--but just at this moment the old Sea-Dog, who had been
constantly increasing his speed, disappeared in a most extraordinary
manner in a whirling cloud of sand, and Davy, who was by this time
spinning around like a teetotum, discovered that he himself was rapidly
boring his way, like a big screw, down into the beach. This was, of
course, a very alarming state of things; but, before Davy could make an
effort to free himself, the whirling cloud of sand burst upon him with a
loud, roaring sound like the sea, and he felt himself going directly
down through the beach, with the sand pouring in upon him as if he had
been inside of a huge hour-glass. He had just time to notice that,
instead of scraping him, the sand had a delightful ticklesome feeling
about it, when he went completely through the beach, and landed, with a
gentle thump, flat on his back, with tall grass waving about him.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE END OF THE BELIEVING VOYAGE.

When Davy sat up and looked around him he found himself in a beautiful
meadow, with the sun shining brightly on the grass and the wild flowers.
The air was filled with dainty-colored insects, darting about in the
warm sunshine, and chirpi