"Don't go to sleep, Jacob, it's too cold. You might never wake up, you know. Persons often freeze to death in that way."

"I no sleep," said Jacob confidently, and in two minutes he was snoring.

"We must wake him!" cried Ben. "It is dangerous, I tell you--Jacob! Ja-a-c--"

Captain Peter interfered, for three of the boys were helping Ben for the fun of the thing.

"Nonsense! Don't shake him! Let him alone, boys. One never snores like that when one's freezing. Cover him up with something. Here, this cloak will do. Hey, schipper?" and he looked toward the stern for permission to use it.

"There," said Peter, tenderly adjusting the garment, "let him sleep. He will be as frisky as a lamb when he wakes. How far are we from Leyden, schipper?"

"Not more'n a couple of pipes," replied a voice, rising from smoke like the genii in fairy tales (puff! puff!). "Likely not more'n one an' a half"--puff! puff!--"if this wind holds." Puff! puff! puff!

"What is the man saying, Lambert?" asked Ben, who was holding his mittened hands against his cheeks to ward off the cutting air.