"'Waal,' sez Cap'n Gawge W. Smoke, 'she can't go aground in the clouds, anyhow, an' there ain't no rocks either.'
"'Waal,' sez I to he, sez I, 'w'ere d'ye think she will go?'
"An' he jess looks at me fur a minute, an' then sez he, 'Preehaps you'd like to get out a chart an' figger out yer position,' sez he to me, him bein' Cap'n an' me fust mate.
"All this time the Herrin' Bones were a-sailin' around an' around the bloomin' water-spout an' goin' up an' up. Now you know, 'cos you jess seed a werry short time ago, that them water-spouts widens out at the top till they just spreads right out into the flat clouds. Waal, we all commenced fur to wonder wot'd happen to us ef the Herrin' Bones kep' on a-goin' up. Putty soon she beginned fur to lean over so that her deck weren't no safe place to stay on, an' then Cap'n Gawge W. Smoke he orders all han's fur to go b'low.
THE PRECARIOUS POSITION OF THE "HERRIN' BONES."
"'Might as well go to the clouds comf'table,' sez he. We all went b'low an' shut all the hatches. Then there weren't nothin' to do 'ceptin' fur to wait developments, as the old hen said w'en she sot down on the duck's egg. Byme-by the bark were hove over so fur that we was all a-settin' on her side, with the decks risin' up like walls on both sides of us. We could hear the ballast tumblin' over itself down in the hold, an' our stores was mixed up into the werry wust sea-salad wot any one ever seed.
"'Oh my! oh my!' sez Pierre Crust, sez he, hidin' his head in a cracker-box, 'we're a-goin' to fall out o' the clouds upside down an' be all smashed up.'
"He were a werry ostridge sort o' man, he were, 'cos he allers thort as how he were out o' danger ef he had his measly old head hid. Howsumever, we all thort putty much the same as he did, an' we weren't in no partikler humor fur to dance hornpipes about it.
"'She's a gittin' furder over!' yelled Tobias Kitten.