Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I hustled Tom Myers and his brother George out into the dining-room, and the other fellows followed. " Is this where you eat ? " asked Scott, looking up and down at the long tables, with the swinging shelves above them. " No, this is n't where they eat," said Harry ; " this is where they come to look at victuals, and get sick at the sight of them." " Sick ! " said I; " not much of it." But the committee laughed, and did n't seem to agree with me. " You 'll be sick ten minutes after the boat starts," said Scott. " We wont get into sea-sick water until we 're out of the lower bay," I said. " And this is n't a boat —it 'a a ship. You fellows know lots ! " Tom Myers and his brother George were trying to find out why the tumblers and glasses were all stuck into holes in the shelves over the tables, when Harry Alden sung out: " What 's that swishing ? " " That what ? " said I. "There it goes again !" Harry cried. " Splashing! " " It 's the wheels ! " exclaimed Rectus. " That 's so ! " cried Scott. "The old thing 's off! Rush up ! Here ! The hind-stairs ! Quick ! " And upstairs to the deck we all went, one on top of another. The wheels were going around, and the steamer was off! Already she was quite a distance from the wharf. I suppose the tide carried her out, as soon as the lineswere cast off, for I 'm sure the wheels had not been in motion half a minute before we heard them. But all that made no difference. We were off. I never saw four such blank faces as the committee wore, when they saw the wide space of water between them and the wharf. "Stop her! " cried Scott to me, as if I could do anything, and then he made a dive toward a party of men on the deck. " They 're passengers ! " I cried. " We must find the captain." " No, no ! ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.