"How exciting!" cried Molly, as she stood in the bow of the boat waving her handkerchief.
"He is doing it! He is stopping his ship!" cried May.
"Of course he is," said her captain. "Now we must row our boat close up to the big one, and you must all climb aboard her."
"Oh, we can never climb up over the side of that big ship!" exclaimed May. "See how our boat is tossing about. We shall be drowned!"
"Tut! tut! You must be as brave as your little sister," said her captain.
"I will try to be brave," said May. And, as their small boat tossed up and down on the rough water close beside the taller ship, she was very brave.
The sailors quickly opened a gate on the deck and pushed out a short gangplank. Two sailors then ran down to the end of the plank and held out their arms to catch the little pirates as they climbed aboard the ship.
Molly and May never knew just how it was done, but in some way their captain swung them from his small boat up onto the gangplank of the big boat, and the sailors held them fast. Their father and mother came up safely, too, and even their traveling bags were put onto the steamer. They were hardly aboard, however, when the ship began to move. The Sunbonnet Babies looked quickly over the deck rail to see why their pirate friends were not with them.
"They have left us!" exclaimed May. "They are rowing back to their cave again!"
Sure enough, the two men were pulling rapidly away from the big boat toward the shore. When they saw the Sunbonnet Babies waving to them, they smilingly took off their caps and called "Addio, little pirates! Be brave and have a happy time."