wet through.

Luckily, their spare clothing, which they had used for pillows, was
untouched by the water, so that they were able to put on dry shirts and
trousers. Their blankets, however, had been thoroughly soaked, and it
was too cold to think of sleeping without them. There was nothing to be
done but to build a fire, and sit around it until daylight. It was by no
means easy to collect fire-wood in the dark; and as soon as a boy
succeeded in getting an armful of driftwood, he usually stumbled and
fell down with it. There was not very much fun in this; but when the
fire finally blazed up, and its pleasant warmth conquered the cold night
air, the boys began to regain their spirits.

"I wonder what time it is?" said one.

Tom had a watch, but he had forgotten to wind it up for two or three
nights, and it had stopped at eight o'clock. The boys were quite sure,
however, that they could not have been asleep more than half an hour.

"It's about one o'clock," said Harry, presently.

"I don't believe it's more than nine," said Joe.

"We must have gone into the tent about an hour after sunset," continued
Harry, "and the sun sets between six and seven. It was low tide then,
and it's pretty near high tide now; and since the tide runs up for about
six hours, it must be somewhere between twelve and one."

"You're right," exclaimed Jim. "Look at the stars. That bright star over
there in the west was just rising when we went to bed."

"You ought to say 'turned in,'" said Joe. "Sailors never go to bed; they
always 'turn in.'"

"Well, we can't turn in any more to-night," replied Tom. "What do you
say, boys? suppose we have breakfast--it'll pass away the time, and we
can have another breakfast by-and-by."

Now that the boys thought of it, they began to feel hungry, for they had
had a very light supper. Everybody felt that hot coffee would be very
nice; so they all went to work, made coffee, fried a piece of ham, and,
with a few slices of bread, made a capital breakfast. They wrung out the
wet blankets and clothes, and hung them up by the fire to dry. Then they
had to collect more fire-wood; and gradually the faint light of the dawn
became visible before they really had time to find the task of waiting
for daylight tiresome.

They decided that it would not do to start with wet blankets, since they
could not dry them in the boat. They therefore continued to keep up a
brisk fire, and to watch the blankets closely, in order to