ered on their tallow and other grease until it was all expended; at
which stage of the proceedings Dick declared himself satisfied, and
marched off to rid himself of the traces of his somewhat dirty work.

And by this time breakfast was ready. Then, upon the conclusion of the
meal, all hands adjourned once more to the yard, Flora being attired for
the occasion in a complete suit of dainty white, topped off with a
broad-brimmed flower-bedecked hat that, under other circumstances, would
doubtless have graced some Valparaiso belle. Dick carried two bottles
of champagne--the last of their scanty stock--in his hand, one of them
being devoted to the christening ceremony, while the other was to be
consumed in drinking success to the little boat.

Arrived alongside, Nicholls nipped up the ladder that gave access to the
little craft's deck, and attached the bottle of champagne to the
stem-head by a line long enough to reach down to within about six inches
of her keel. Then he went aft and lashed the tiller amidships, which
done, he announced that all was ready. Upon hearing this Dick placed
the bottle of wine in Flora's hand, and, telling her when to act and
what to say, stationed himself, with a heavy sledge-hammer in his hand,
at one of the spur-shores, Simpson, similarly provided, going to the
other. Then--

"Are you all ready?" shouted Dick.

"Ay, ay, sir, all ready!" answered Simpson, swaying up the heavy hammer
over his shoulder.

"Then _strike_!" yelled Dick; and crash fell the two hammers
simultaneously; down dropped the spur-shores, and a tremor appeared to
thrill the little craft throughout her entire fabric.

For a single moment she seemed to hang--to Dick's unmitigated
consternation, but the next second he saw her begin to move with an
almost imperceptible gliding motion toward the water. Flora saw it too,
and raising the bottle of wine in her hand, dashed it against the little
craft's bows, shattering the glass to pieces and causing the wine to
cream over the brightly burnished copper as she cried--

"God bless the _Flora_ and grant her success!"

The speed of the handsome little clipper rapidly increased, and
presently she entered the water with a headlong rush, curtseying as
gracefully as though she had learned the trick from her namesake, ere
she recovered herself and floated lightly as a soap-bubble on the water.
(For although Dick had found an entire outfit of lead ballast for her,
already cast t