"'Out o' our course!' sez the Cap'n, sez he. 'I wish the bloomin' water-spout were out o't.'
"All hands was a-layin' flat on deck, with our feet agin' the lee rail—leastways it ort to bin the lee rail, 'cos it were the one wot were down, but it weren't, 'cos the wind were blowin' up, an' things was ginerally goin' back end fust, like a Chinese junk in a head-sea.
"'D'ye think she'd right herself ef we cut away the masts?' Cap'n Gawge W. Smoke sez he to me.
"'Mebbe she would,' sez I to he; 'but ef she did we'd have water on top o' us, an' then good-by.'
"'Then I'm blowed ef I know wot to do with her,' sez he to me, sez he. An' me not knowin' wot to say back, I didn't say nothin', but hung on with both hands.
"'Oh my! oh my!' sez Pierre Crust; 'we're a-goin' up this 'ere dreadful thing. Look down!'
"An', sure 'nuff, w'en I looked over the side I seed a ship away down below us on the sea, an' her Cap'n were a-lookin' at us through a telescup, he were.
"'Salt me down fur a mackerel,' sez Cap'n Gawge W. Smoke, 'ef ever I thought that any ship o' mine would go fur to turn herself into a bloomin' balloon!'
"All the time we was a-sailin' round an' round the spout like it was a corkscrew worked by steam, an' we was a-goin' up an' up.
"'I wonder ef there's water 'nuff up there to float the old hooker?' sez Pierre Crust.