Then she came to a dead halt. It was just in time, too, for the chief he stood up near the idol they had for a bow, waving his club, and his voice came faint over the water:
"If I catch you, you have to eat your own chill-puddin'! All my people are tumbled over with bad magic!"
"Adoo, Chief!" I sings out. "We was afraid you'd eat too much!"
He bowled a war-club at us, but he was n't feelin' strong, and then he keeled over; and that was the last of the Tappy-appy-ocas.
"Now, here's your boat," said Sailor Ben, as he finished his story. "Let her get good and dry, or you 'll be gettin' your clothes mussed up with it."
"Thank you ever so much for the boat, and for the story, too," said the little boy, as he took the new boat daintily by the mast-head.
"I hope," said Sailor Ben, looking after his little friend, and picking up his paint and brushes, "that the little landlubber did n't believe all that nonsense. He seemed rather serious and solemn over it."
