er at the children,
(Five of them too) laughing, singing.
In nest most wonderful to see,
Between the branches swinging,
Swinging, swinging--
Between the branches swinging.

[Illustration]

[Begun in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 31, June 1.]

THE MORAL PIRATES.

BY W. L. ALDEN.

CHAPTER VI.

The wave receded as suddenly as it came. The boys sprang up in a
terrible fright, and indeed there are few men who in their place would
not have been frightened. The shock of the cold water was enough to
startle the strongest nerves, and as the boys rushed to the door of the
tent, in a blind race for life, they fully believed that their last hour
had come. Before they could get out of the tent, a second wave swept up
and rose above their knees. With wild cries of terror, the two younger
boys caught hold of Tom, and losing their footing, dragged him down.
Harry caught at Tom impulsively, with a vague idea of saving him from
drowning, but the only result of his effort was that he went down with
the rest. Fortunately the wave receded before the boys had time to
drown, and left them struggling in a heap on the wet sand. There was no
return of the water, and in a few moments the boys were outside of the
tent, and on the top of the bluff above the river.

"It must have been a tidal wave," said Jim. "Oh, I'd give anything if I
was home! The water will come up again, and we'll all be drowned!"

"It was the swell of a steamboat," said Tom. "There's the boat now, just
going around that point."

"You're right," said Harry. "It was nothing but the swell of the night
boat. What precious fools we were not to think of it before! To-morrow
night we'll pitch the tent about a thousand feet above the water."

"Then there'll be a water-spout or something," said Jim. "We're bound to
get wet whatever we do. We only started yesterday, and here we've been
wet through three times."

"And Harry has been wet four times, counting the time he jumped into the
Harlem for me," added Joe.

"It won't do to stand here and talk about it," said Tom. "We've got to
have a fire, or we'll freeze. Look at the way Joe's teeth are
chattering. The blankets and clothes are all wet, and the sooner we dry
them, the better."

[Illustration: TRYING TO KEEP WARM.]

There happened to be a dead tree near by, and it was soon converted into
fire-wood. The boys built a roaring fire on a large flat rock, and after
it had burned for a little while, they push