it his ocean, and launched
the "Sea-bird." With a pair of bellows he made wind, and with a dipper
he made waves; and by placing a kettle bottom upwards in the middle of
the sink he made an island; and the good ship pitched, and tossed, and
rolled in a very exciting manner. At length he resolved to have a
shipwreck. This he managed, not by putting the ship on a rock, but by
putting a rock on the ship. He used for the purpose the stone Joe Beals
did not throw through the pantry window, and the "Sea-bird" went down,
with all her crew on board. He then opened the holes in the sink, and
the tide, going out, left the vessel on her beam-ends, stranded.

It would have been well for Andy if he had been contented with such
innocent pastimes, without doing mischief to the cat, or chickens, or
pigs, or trying to shoot the pretty birds that fly about the orchards,
singing so sweetly, and eating the worms that destroy the trees.

But nothing satisfied him; and to have some better fun than any yet, he
determined to stand in the door and scream, "Fire!" He could not imagine
greater sport than to see the neighbors come running to put out the
fire, and then laugh at them for being duped. He did not consider that
they would have to leave their work, and run a long distance, till they
were quite out of breath; or that his laughter would be a very mean and
foolish return for the good-will they would show in hastening to save
his father's house; or that, in case the house should really take fire
some day, and he should call for help, people might think it another
silly trick, and stay away.

He stood in the door, filled his lungs with a long breath, opened his
mouth as wide as he could, and screamed,--"Fire! fire! fire!"

Three times. He thought it so funny, that he had to stop and laugh.
Then he took another breath, and screamed again, louder than
before,--"Fire! fire! fire! fire! fire!"

Five times; and he heard the echoes away off among the hills; and,
looking across the lot, he saw old Mother Quirk hobbling on her crutch.

Old Mother Quirk was just about the queerest woman in the world. She had
a nose as crooked as a horn, and almost as long. It crooked down to meet
her chin, and her chin crooked up to meet her nose. And some people said
she could hold the end of a thread between them, when she wished to
twist a cord with both hands,--although I doubt it. Her face was so full
of wrinkles, that the smallest spot you could think of ha