“She got jerry to the fact that there was a bottle of jig juice in the galley and at once threw a chill.  Honest, to see that fluff do a stage chill would have made a eel laugh, ha! ha! in that manner.  She shook so hard she nearly threw us all out of the scow, so that we finally had to listen to her pleadings and pass her the booze.

“I was for letting her shake so if we wanted mixed drinks al we would have to do was to put the glass in her mitt and say go to it, but some of the gazabos in the mob got a sympathy streak and let her have it.  I’d a let her had it, all right, all right, the outside of the bottle right on the marcel.

“The subterfuges these Janes will indulge in to accomplish their ends makes my goat jump the barrier.

“Nothing else marred our pleasant little sail up the river except when we opened the lunch box we found only one sandwich, and no one would eat it.  Everybody wanted to trade their interest in it for a bottle of beer, and there was nearly a riot.

“It was finally settled by Wilbur, who is always the fair-haired boy when it comes to emergencies.  He took the sandwich and threw it overboard and each and every member of the famished crew had another eyedropper full of suds.  If it hadn’t been for him, we would be out there yet.

“We had got up to nearly opposite 155th street by this time and some of the less experienced members of the jolly gang were commencing to worry that they would never see Broadway again and stationed a lookout in the bow to find Albany.  Aye, aye, the deck, water sighted on the port beam.  On duty, captain.  These noodley dames were strong for reversing and returning to our harbor, which we had not seen for these many years—­ah, the brave sailor lad; alas, he had to remain away from home at night—­so Wilbur started to turn the boat around.

“I think he must have thought he was driving a street car, for instead of reversing like any white man would, he pulled off an evolution that was a peach.

“All of the wind ducked out of the sail gag for a minute and the boat spun around, then, all of a sudden, it filled again, and, bingo! the scow slowly lays over on her side an dies.  The outfit fell into the water kerplunk.  I think I touched the bottom nine times before I grabbed the side of the boat.  I remember distinctly of passing a fish so often that we got on speaking terms.

“When I got the briny out of my lamps and took a pike around, there was the whole works clinging to the side of the boat looking like a flock of wet cats.

“The remarks they made to Wilbur I would not repeat here, for he is to be my future husband.  The water was as cold as a flat in the Winter time and nothing in sight.

“One of the dames, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was that Alla party, suggested that we lash a man to the rigging and let him look for help.  Another was strong for turning the flag upside down as a signal of distress.  Louie Zweibaum nearly drowned because he had to use both hands to tell her that the rigging was under water.