tranded sloop, then--sitting high and dry,
out of the reach of the summer surf,--Tod and Archie spent every hour
of the day they could call their own; sallying forth on various
piratical excursions, coming back laden with driftwood for a bonfire,
or hugging some bottle, which was always opened with trembling, eager
fingers in the inmost recesses of the Home, in the hope that some
tidings of a lost ship might be found inside; or with their pockets
crammed with clam-shells and other sea spoils with which to decorate
the inside timbers of what was left of the former captain's cabin.

Jane had protested at first, but the doctor had looked the hull over,
and found that there was nothing wide enough, nor deep enough, nor
sharp enough to do them harm, and so she was content. Then again, the
boys were both strong for their age, and looked it, Tod easily passing
for a lad of twelve or fourteen, and Archie for a boy of ten. The one
danger discovered by the doctor lay in its height, the only way of
boarding the stranded craft being by means of a hand-over-hand climb up
the rusty chains of the bowsprit, a difficult and trousers-tearing
operation. This was obviated by Tod's father, who made a ladder for the
boys out of a pair of old oars, which the two pirates pulled up after
them whenever an enemy hove in sight. When friends approached it was
let down with more than elaborate ceremony, the guests being escorted
by Archie and welcomed on board by Tod.

Once Captain Holt's short, sturdy body was descried in the offing
tramping the sand-dunes on his way to Fogarty's, and a signal
flag--part of Mother Fogarty's flannel petticoat, and blood-red, as
befitted the desperate nature of the craft over which it floated, was
at once set in his honor. The captain put his helm hard down and came
up into the wind and alongside the hulk.

"Well! well! well!" he cried in his best quarterdeck voice--"what are
you stowaways doin' here?" and he climbed the ladder and swung himself
over the battered rail.

Archie took his hand and led him into the most sacred recesses of the
den, explaining to him his plans for defence, his armament of barrel
hoops, and his ammunition of shells and pebbles, Tod standing silently
by and a little abashed, as was natural in one of his station; at which
the captain laughed more loudly than before, catching Archie in his
arms, rubbing his curly head with his big, hard hand, and telling him
he was a chip of the old block,