p his failing courage, sang cheerily:

"Up in a balloon, boys,
Up in a balloon,
All among the little stars
That twinkle round the moon."

"Don't see any stars crinkle," said Puck; "nuffin but ugly gray fog."

His mother awoke just then, and she caught her breath with a gasp as she
looked up, for all the rigging of the imaginary ship had disappeared, and
a dense fog was folded close around them. The balloon seemed, too, to have
met with a new current of wind, for it was rushing along with fearful
velocity, whither,--even the professor himself could not guess. Looking
downward, they saw the same impenetrable fog, and the professor concluded
to let the balloon drift on in its course for a while.

Presently, Puck exclaimed: "Mamma, don't oo hear ze bears g'owl?" For some
time, the others had heard a low menacing grumble. It sounded like the
roar of machinery, with the falling of a heavy trip-hammer at regular
intervals, and it seemed possible that they were in the vicinity of a
manufacturing town. There was a little light in the eastern horizon, and
Puck suddenly exclaimed, "T'ere's anoder b'loon!" It was the full moon,
instead, that rose majestically, and the fog seemed to be disappearing.
Looking down, the professor thought he could see the land, and he allowed
the balloon to slowly descend. By and by, they could all see that the
ground was marked with white streaks and spots, which they supposed to be
snow.

Lower and lower sank the balloon, and still Puck's bears continued to
"g'owl."

Suddenly, the professor uttered an exclamation of horror--only two words,
"The sea!" But they sounded like a sentence of doom to the travelers. They
were floating over a wide and angry sea!

The professor threw overboard a bag of ballast, and the balloon darted
upward again into space. Where were they? Was it the Bay of Biscay, the
North Sea, the English Channel, or the open Atlantic?

Very soon, the balloon began to descend again. The roar of the waves was
louder than ever, and they beat the same tune that the great bass-drum and
the cannon had played:

"Boom-er-oom, a boom-er-oom!
A boom! boom! boom!"--

for they were striking against a rocky wall, and the white cliffs of Dover
rose ghostly in the moonlight before them.

The professor threw overboard his last bag of ballast; Puck hid his face
in his mother's dress, while she, in the presence of that mighty danger,
sang a hymn. Mrs. Parker w