of clay, which soon
began to melt away in the water. Seeing this, the hare lifted his
paddle, and with one blow sunk the boat, and the badger was drowned.

The hare went back and told the old man, who was glad that his wife had
been revenged, and more than ever petted the hare to the end of his
life.

[Begun in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 31, June 1.]

THE MORAL PIRATES.

BY W. L. ALDEN.

CHAPTER IV.

Some time in the middle of the night Joe Sharpe woke up from a dream
that he had fallen into the river, and could not get out. He thought
that he had caught hold of the supports of a bridge, and had drawn
himself partly out of the water, but that he had not strength enough to
drag his legs out, and that, on the contrary, he was slowly sinking
back. When he awoke he found that he was very cold, and that his blanket
felt particularly heavy. He put his hand down to move the blanket, when,
to his great surprise, he found that he was lying with his legs in a
pool of water.

Joe instantly shouted to the other boys, and told them to wake up, for
it was raining, and the tent was leaking. As each boy woke up he found
himself as wet as Joe, and at first all supposed that it was raining
heavily. They soon found, however, that no rain-drops were pattering on
the outside of the tent, and that the stars were shining through the
open nap.

"There's water in this tent," said Tom, with the air of having made a
grand discovery.

"If any of you fellows have been throwing water on me, it was a mean
trick," said Jim.

All at once an idea struck Harry. "Boys," he exclaimed, "it's the tide!
We've got to get out of this place mighty quick, or the tide will wash
the tent away."

The boys sprung up, and rushed out of the tent. They had gone to bed at
low tide, and as the tide rose it had gradually invaded the tent. The
boat was still safe, but the water had surrounded it, and in a very
short time would be deep enough to float it. The tide was still rising,
and it was evident that no time should be lost if the tent was to be
saved.

Two of the boys hurriedly seized the blankets and other articles which
were in the tent, and carried them on to the higher ground, while the
other two pulled up the pins, and dragged the tent out of reach of the
water. Then they pulled the boat farther up the beach, and having thus
made everything safe, had leisure to discover that they were miserably
cold, and that their clothes, from the waist down, were