d ground
till sundown."

Arthur was hunted out of his nest, and as soon as he knew of the object
in view he displayed plenty of eagerness. The sight of the
cutter-rigged smack lying with her bowsprit pointing to the wind, and
her white mainsail flapping and quivering in the breeze, which seemed to
send mimic waves chasing each other along it from mast to edge, while
the jib lay all of a heap waiting to be hoisted, being one that would
have roused the most phlegmatic to a desire to have a cruise, and see
some of the wonders of the deep dredged up.

The master of the trawler gave the boys a hearty reception, his bronzed
face expanding into a smile as he held Dick's hand in his great hard
brown heavy paw.

"So you've come a-trawling, have you, my lad? Well, I'm glad to see
you, and you too, sir," he added, shaking hands with Arthur in turn.
"Going to stop aboard, lads?" he said in a kind of chant to Will and
Josh.

"Ay, we're going to stop," said the latter; so the master of the trawler
sent one of his own crew ashore with Uncle Abram's boat, telling the man
he could stay.

The next minute the master gave the word, and went to the tiller, a
couple of men began to haul up the jib, and then Arthur was clinging
frantically to Will.

"Quick! The boat!" he cried. "The ship's going over."

Then he turned from deadly pale to scarlet as he saw Will's smile and
look of amusement.

"It's all right, Master Arthur," said the latter; "it's the wind taking
hold of the mains'l. She only careens a bit."

"But won't it go over?"

"Over! Oh, no!" said Will; "there's too much ballast. There, you see,
now we're beginning to move."

"But ought the boat to go side wise like this?" whispered Arthur. "The
deck's all of a slope."

"Oh, yes, that's right enough. When we're on the other tack she'll
careen over the other side. The stiffer the breeze and the more sail
there is, the more she careens. I've been in a smack when we've been
nearly lying down in the water, and it's washed right over the deck."

"There, young gents, she's moving now," said the master, as the gaff was
hoisted, and the beautifully-shaped cutter began to rush through the
water at a rapid rate, leaving two long lines of foam in an
ever-widening wake, while, like some gigantic sword-fish, she ploughed
her way through the glittering sea. The sails bellied out tense and
stiff, and the wind whistled as it seemed to sweep off the three sails.

There wa