"What's that, afire, away up the sound, close into the main land?" asks the phlegmatic Atwater.
"I swan, ef 'tan't one of the rebel steamers! She's got disabled, and they've run her ashore. She's all a sheet of fire now!"
"What's that saucy little tug around here for?"
"Burnside's aboard of her. He's coming to see if we're all right. We shall land soon," says Gray.
"See!" cries Frank; "our gunboats are shelling the shore, to make a landing-place for us. I wouldn't like to be in the woods there!"
"I guess Frank wouldn't!" observes Jack. "But I would; I'd like no better fun than to rush right in and skedaddle the rebels with the bayonet; that's the way to do it!"
"The woods are afire! Our shells have set them afire!" cries Ellis. "Look! there come the rebel steamers again, down the western shore. They think they can get down at us, now our gunboats are busy off there."
"When the cat's away the mice will play," says Tucket. "But the kittens are after 'em!"
"There goes Burnside's tug to see what the row is!"
"The battery scarcely fires at all now," says Frank, looking at his watch. "It's twenty minutes since it has fired a shot."