something wildly
above his head.

"I've found 'em! Just to think of me putting the blessed wings so
carefully away in that same cubbyhole, and then forgetting all about
it? But you knew they were there all the time, I'm dead sure you did,
George! And how cruel of you to let me waste away to skin and bone,
mourning for them!"

"Well, you never asked me if I knew where you stuck 'em," retorted the
skipper, with a big grin. "And, after all, I rather liked to hear you
grunt about losing 'em."

"Yes, a whole lot you did, when you threatened to eat me, or throw me
to the alligators if I kept it up. But I guess you were only bluffing,
George. I don't think you could be quite that barbarous," said Nick,
reproachfully.

"Well, what are you going to do with them now?" demanded the other.
"You know how to swim the best ever; and sure you wouldn't be guilty of
wearing those silly wings. And I refuse to carry the cargo any
further. How about it, Buster?"

"Yes; we want to know," added Jack.

"They'll do for babies, but not fellows who have mastered the noble art
of swimming, so make up your mind," said Josh, grandly.

Nick took one last look at the affairs he had once deemed so essential
to his happiness. Then he calmly strode over, and amid the shouts of
the rest, dropped the swimming wings upon the fire, where they were
speedily reduced to ashes.

"You're right," he observed, moving his arms like a swimmer; "a fellow
who has graduated has no need for artificial fins. I'm in your class
now!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WINNER OF THE CUP--CONCLUSION.

"Can anybody tell me what day of the month this is?" asked Nick, who
was making up some sort of private log, which would possibly afford his
companions more or less merriment in future days.

"Why, that's easy," smiled Jack, who had been keeping the official log
of the progress of events, partly because he was at the head of the
club; and then again because he had a right good cause to know how time
flew, since he was due in the Crescent City by December first. "This
is Saturday, and we stay here until Monday, which will mark the
twenty-first of November."

"That gives you another ten days to make the balance of the journey,
and land a winner?" observed George.

"Yes," said Jack, "we'll take our time this week, moving along, and
seeing all the queer sights of the levees that have been built to keep
out the river when it is on the flood stage. Since we ma