Here he was interrupted by Prowler who said would he please go a little slower, for Rudolf was making his head ache and it reminded him of going to his aunt’s to say his catechism.

“The thing ter do,” drawled Growler sleepily, “is ter do nothin’ ’tall till ye git somewheres where somethin’s gotter be did, an’ then like’s not it’s too late ter do anything an’ all yer trouble’s saved for ye!”

Rudolf did not think much of this as advice, but Prowler seemed delighted.  “Hurrah, my hearties!” he shouted, and up he jumped, stood on his furry head on the deck, and waved his pink pajamaed legs in the air.  “Now we can have our tea!” he cried.

The faces of the three children brightened at the pleasant thought of tea, and when the tray arrived, carried by Towser, Ann asked if she might pour.

“Paw away!” cried Prowler, grinning widely as he fixed his round yellow eyes on a small covered dish that Toddles had just set before him.

Ann lifted the cover of the tea-pot to peep inside but as she sniffed the steam an expression of disgust wrinkled up her little nose.  “Ugh!” she cried, “it’s catnip tea.”

“Course it is,” answered Prowler calmly.  “Catnip tea and stewed mouses’ tails—­an’ I asks what could anybody want nicer?”

“Little girls that don’t like what’s put before ’em can go without.  Ever hear anything like that before?” asked Growler sweetly, and as he spoke he reached over and took the covered dish away from Prowler and helped himself to it largely.

“But we don’t any of us like this kind of a tea!” cried Rudolf angrily.

“Then all the more for us that does,” said Prowler, and he snatched the dish in his turn away from Growler and emptied all that was left of it on his own plate.  Since there was nothing else for the children to do, they sat and watched the two mates eat, all of them feeling decidedly cross, especially Peter.  When every drop was finished and every crumb licked up, Growler said to Prowler, “Time for a nap, old boy,” and without so much as a look in the children’s direction the two rude fellows turned tail and marched off arm in arm to their bunks.

“Well, they are nice!” cried Ann.  “And what are we going to do, I would like to know?”

“What we are going to do,” said Rudolf thoughtfully, “is probably to be shipwrecked.  Oh, not right away,” he added quickly as he saw how frightened his little sister looked.  “But there’s land close ahead, as sure as sure can be, and, if I’m not much mistaken, Toddles and Towser have both gone to sleep at the wheel.”

It was true.  The two common sea-cats had left the wheel to take care of itself and had curled themselves up in a soft round ball on the deck for a nap from which the children found it impossible to arouse them.

“I will try to steer and also mind the sheet, I think that’s what it’s called,” said Rudolf, “but as I don’t know much about sailing a boat except what I’ve read in books, and you and Peter don’t know anything, I think the least we’ll do will be to run her aground.”