ANY WORDS'"]

The boat gave a slight tremor.

"Hurrah," cried Elizabeth, clapping her hands with glee, "we are off!"

"I will repair to the deck and get our bearings," said Mrs. Noah, putting
her shawl over her shoulders. "Meantime, Cleopatra, I appoint you first
mate. See that things are tidied up a bit here before I return. Have the
windows washed, and to-morrow I want all the rugs and carpets taken up and
shaken."

Portia meanwhile had discovered the naphtha engine, and, after
experimenting several times with the various levers and stop-cocks, had
finally managed to move one of them in such a way as to set the engine
going, and the wheel began to revolve.

"Are we going all right?" she cried, from below.

"I am afraid not," said the gallant commander. "The wheel is roiling up
the water at a great rate, but we don't seem to be going ahead very
fast--in fact, we're simply moving round and round as though we were on a
pivot."

"I'm afraid we're aground amidships," said Xanthippe, gazing over the side
of the House-boat anxiously. "She certainly acts that way--like a
merry-go-round."

"Well, there's something wrong," said Mrs. Noah; "and we've got to hurry
and find out what it is, or those men will be back and we shall be as
badly off as ever."

"Maybe this has something to do with it," observed Mrs. Lot, pointing to
the anchor rope. "It looks to me as if those horrid men had tied us fast."

"That's just what it is," snapped Mrs. Noah. "They guessed our plan, and
have fastened us to a pole or something, but I imagine we can untie it."

Portia, who had come on deck, gave a short little laugh.

"Why, of course we don't move," she said--"we are anchored!"

"What's that?" queried Mrs. Noah. "We never had an experience like that on
the Ark."

Portia explained the science of the anchor.

"What nonsense!" ejaculated Mrs. Noah. "How can we get away from it?"

"We've got to pull it up," said Portia. "Order all hands on deck and have
it pulled up."

"It can't be done, and, if it could, I wouldn't have it!" said Mrs. Noah,
indignantly. "The idea! Lifting heavy pieces of iron, my dear Portia, is
not a woman's work. Send for Delilah, and let her cut the rope with her
scissors."

"It would take her a week to cut a hawser like that," said Elizabeth, who
had been investigating. "It would be more to the purpose, I think, to chop
it in two with an axe."

"Very well," replied Mrs. Noah, satisfied. "I don't care how