actually did, but as Mr. Atkins says, if you only wait long enough any time will come. We packed our stuff and took the train, and when we woke up next morning we were coming into New York.

Mr. Browning met us and we went to a big hotel, the biggest I ever saw, and after breakfast we got into his automobile and drove out into the country on Long Island. In about an hour we got to the town where Mr. Browning kept his yacht anchored off a club. We didn’t know what kind of a boat it was going to be, but you can bet we were anxious to find out. There were about a hundred yachts anchored there—all kinds, from great steam yachts and enormous sailing yachts to little thirty-foot launches.

There was a power dinghy tied to the float and a man in it dressed in “whites.” The name Albatross was on the dinghy in gold letters, so we knew it belonged to Mr. Browning, for that was the name of his yacht. Mr. Browning walked out on the float and says, “Hello, Naboth. Everything ready?”

“Ready as human hands kin git it—considerin’,” says Naboth.

“Help get the baggage aboard. Here’s the rest of our crew, Naboth. Catty Atkins and Wee-wee Moore.”

“Huh. Eat more ’n they’ll work,” said Naboth.

“We’ll set them polishing brass,” says Mr. Browning.

“Won’t nuther. Don’t calc’late to have no boys tinkerin’ with my brass. ’Tain’t ’s if it was ord’nary brass. Uh-uh. Seems like I raised that brass from a pup. Hain’t nobody goin’ to tetch a polishin’ rag to it but me, not so long’s I’m able to waggle a fist.... You hear that?” he says, turning to us kind of fierce.

We said we heard, and he said we’d better hear and heed, and then we all got into the dinghy and Naboth started the engine, and we went skittering out toward the fleet. In about three minutes we came up under the stern of a big white boat with Albatross across her stern, and Naboth brought the dinghy up against her jacob’s ladder as soft as if it was an egg and he was afraid of breaking it.

“Make ’em git rubber soles on quick, so’s they won’t scratch up my deck,” says he.

I began to wonder who owned the yacht—whether it was Mr. Browning or Naboth, but I didn’t say anything, and neither did Catty. As Catty says, “You never make a fool of yourself by keeping your mouth shut and your eyes open.”

We climbed up 

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