"'An' ef we gets in, how does we get out?' sez I.
"'How I tell that?' sez he.
"An' that bein' so, there weren't no more to say. Waal, the Ham Bone druv down to leeward, an' the wegetables kep' a-gettin' thicker an' thicker, an' all kinds o' sea-weeds an' other sea-garden truck were mixed up with 'em. Ef the storm hadn' bin so heavy we'd 'a' stuck fast then. But seein' as how 'twere such a powerful gale, one smashin' big sea, about sixty feet high, picks up the old Ham Bone, an' carries her clean away over the edge o' the aforesaid beach, an' sets her down ca-plump about half a mile inland, w'ere she bruk through the crust, an' were wedged in jess like she mought 'a' bin in the ice up north. An' then we all seed that this 'ere perairie were nothin' but a bloomin' jam o' sea-weed, land plants, dead trees, wegetables, an' truck—all worked in so tight that they made a ginuwine solid crust on top o' the sea.
"'Sacré bleau!' sez the Cap'n, w'ich are French for 'I'm giggered'; an' Willum Smitzer he jess remarked, 'Warum und wohin?' w'ich are low Dutch for 'W'ere are I at?' An' me, I didn't say nothin'; cos w'y, there weren't no use. The nex' mornin' the gale were all over, an' there we was. I went to the mast-head fur to have a look, an' away down three miles furder into the bloomin' stuff than we was I seed another ship with her upper masts gone, w'ich the same I reported to Cap'n Peleg Mahoney. With that he sez he b'lieves we could walk on the bloomin' crust, an' he sends a hand over the side to try. Walk! W'y, blow me fur pickles ef ye couldn't 'a' built a house onto it. So the Cap'n he allows as how it were our dooty fur to l'arn wot we could about that there other ship. Accordin'ly him an' me an' Willum Smitzer started off together. We got about half-way w'en we seed men comin' from the other ship to meet us. That were mos' supprisin', cos she looked so fur in we thort she must 'a' bin there fur years. W'en the men come up one on 'em sings out,
"'Wot ship are that?'
"Cap'n Mahoney told him, an' then sez he, 'You're not bound fur nowhere now.' But Cap'n Mahoney sez he to he, sez he, 'We wuz comin' to see you.' An' sez I to he, sez I, 'How d'ye git hove so fur in?'
"'Oh, that are easy explained,' sez he to me, sez he; 'we got in four year ago, an' the bloomin' stuff are growed furder out since then.'
"'You bin here four years?' sez I.
"'Them's it,' sez he. 'Come along over an' see our farm.'