heir nets they found a solid comfort that fully compensated
them for not being able to sleep ashore.

And so the night passed. Nothing occurred to disturb them; and yet
despite the calm, it is doubtful whether any of the six slept very
well. The novelty of once more being away from civilization and
starting on a long cruise that might bring all sorts of adventures in
its train, kept them wakeful.

Doubtless, too, memory carried them back to many scenes connected with
past experiences; and they lived again in the various happenings
marking those halcyon days.

Up with the dawn some of them once more went ashore. The fire was
started afresh and preparations for breakfast were under way by the
time Nick made his appearance. He surveyed what was being done for a
little time, and then lifted his voice in protest:

"What! no oysters for breakfast? That's mighty funny, now. I expected
to have 'em every meal, you know."

Not getting any satisfaction from Josh, who was busy making some batter
for the camp flapjacks, Nick wandered off. They soon heard him hard at
work on oyster shells, though an occasional grunt told that he had cut
his tender fingers with the sharp points.

He did succeed in opening a few, which he insisted on cooking for his
own breakfast; and Josh let him have his way; but it might have been
noticed that Nick consumed his full share of the batter cakes; and even
wistfully eyed a last one belonging to the cook, upon which Josh
generously passed it along, saying that he was "full up."

If any one ever saw Nick in that condition it did not readily occur to
them, for the fat boy seemed to be built after the style of an omnibus,
with always room for "just one more," with crowding.

"Looks like a good day ahead," remarked Herb, glancing at the sky.

"I was just thinking the other way," spoke up Jack.

"Eh? What makes you tell us that, after hearing what those oystermen
said about the danger we'd run, if we were caught in the big bay in a
storm?" asked George; for his narrow-beam boat always threatened to
turn turtle when the waves were very boisterous, and it kept him
guessing continually.

"Oh! well, I may be wrong; but I didn't altogether like the looks of
those mottled clouds as the sun was coming up," Jack remarked.

"And it was red, too, which I understand is always a bad sign," Nick
put in. "If we could only get another lot of shell fish, I'd vote to
stay right here for the day. Perhaps