er boys, "we should
have eaten some of the nuts. Those, at least, we should have been
sure of."

"And we should have had that many less to show to the other classes,"
said the eldest boy. "Nuts like these, I am told, if picked at the
proper season, will keep for a long time."

For some days the corsairs on board the "Horn o' Plenty" followed
their own vessel, but then they seemed to despair of ever being able
to overtake it, and steered in another direction. This threatened to
ruin all the plans of Captain Covajos, and his mind became troubled.
Then the boy who had studied mechanics came forward and said to the
Captain:

"I'll tell you what I'd do, sir, if I were you; I'd follow your old
ship, and when night came on I'd sail up quite near to her, and let
some of your sailors swim quietly over, and fasten a cable to her,
and then you could tow her after you wherever you wished to go."

"But they might unfasten the cable, or cut it," said Baragat, who was
standing by.

"That could easily be prevented," said the boy. "At their end of the
cable must be a stout chain which they cannot cut, and it must be
fastened so far beneath the surface of the water that they will not
be able to reach it to unfasten it."

"A most excellent plan," said Captain Covajos; "let it be carried
out."

As soon as it became quite dark, the corsair vessel quietly
approached the other, and two stout sailors from Finland, who swam
very well, were ordered to swim over and attach the chain-end of a
long cable to the "Horn o' Plenty." It was a very difficult
operation, for the chain was heavy, but the men succeeded at last,
and returned to report.

"We put the chain on, fast and strong sir," they said to the Captain;
"and six feet under water. But the only place we could find to make
it fast to was the bottom of the rudder."

"That will do very well," remarked Baragat; "for the 'Horn o' Plenty'
sails better backward than forward, and will not be so hard to tow."

For week after week, and month after month, Captain Covajos, in the
corsair vessel, sailed here and there in search of Apple Island,
always towing after him the "Horn o' Plenty," with the corsairs on
board, but never an island with a school on it could they find; and
one day old Baragat came to the Captain and said:

"If I were you, sir, I'd sail no more in these warm regions. I am
quite sure that apples grow in colder latitudes, and are never found
so far south as this."

"Tha