, following closely,
passed the Fritz with a rush which narrowly escaped the impalement of
the one by the other's sharp nose, struck, hung for a moment, while the
water dashed over her decks and around her manhole, then washed loose
and went onward safely to still water. The Fritz, solid as the
Pyramids, beckoned the Hattie to come on without awaiting the
questionable time of the latter's release; so the namesake of the
hazel-eyed and brown-haired Indiana girl came into the boil and bubble,
sailed gayly by the troubles of the others, was gliding on toward quiet
seas under her skipper's gleeful whoops, when, bang! went her bow upon
a rock, from which a moment's work freed her: tz-z-z-z-z-zip crunched
her copper nails over another just under water, whence she went bumping
and crunching, her captain's prudent and energetic guidance knocking
his flag one way and his wooden hatch the other, till finally his
troubles were behind him. Then the Fritz began to stir. Her commander
went overboard and released her, then leaped astride her deck and
paddled cautiously down the rift and slowly down the quieter water
below, howling through the pelting rain,
"Then let the world wag along as it will:
We'll be gay and happy still,"
until he came upon his comrades--one stumbling about over the blackened
roots of grass and underbrush from a recent fire in search of wood for
our needed noon-day blaze; the other with wet matches and birch bark,
and imprecations for which there was ample justification, vainly
seeking that without which hot coffee and broiled bacon cannot be.
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