“No turtles can get on board here, unless they climb up the anchor cable,” said Captain Crane with a laugh. “Now we’ll get all snug for the night, so if it comes on to blow, or storm, we shall be all right.”
It was a little too early to go to bed, so the Bobbsey twins and the grown folks sat on deck in the moonlight. The men of the crew, and the cook, sat on the other end of the deck, and also talked. It was very warm, for the travelers were now in southern waters, nearer the equator than they had ever been before. Even with very thin clothes on the air felt hot, though, of course, just as at Lakeport or Meadow Brook, it was cooler in the evening than during the day.
“It’s almost too hot to go down into the staterooms,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I wonder if we couldn’t sleep out on deck?”
“Yes, we could have the mattresses brought up,” said Cousin Jasper. “I have often slept on the deck of my own boat.”
“Some of the crew are going to, they tell me,” Captain Crane said.
“Then we will,” Mr. Bobbsey decided. “It will be more like camping out. And it certainly is very hot, even with the sun down.”
“We may have a thunderstorm in the night,” the captain said, “but we can sleep out until then.”
So the mattresses and bed covers were brought up from the stateroom.
“This is a new kind of camping out, isn’t it?” remarked Flossie, as she viewed the bringing up of the bed things with great interest.
“It’s a good deal like moving, I think,” answered Freddie. “Only, of course, we haven’t got any moving van to load the things on to.”