As soon as it became quite dark, the corsair vessel quietly approached the other, and two stout sailors from Finland, who swam very well, were ordered to swim over and attach the chain-end of a long cable to the “Horn o’ Plenty.”  It was a very difficult operation, for the chain was heavy, but the men succeeded at last, and returned to report.

“We put the chain on, fast and strong sir,” they said to the Captain; “and six feet under water.  But the only place we could find to make it fast to was the bottom of the rudder.”

“That will do very well,” remarked Baragat; “for the ‘Horn o’ Plenty’ sails better backward than forward, and will not be so hard to tow.”

For week after week, and month after month, Captain Covajos, in the corsair vessel, sailed here and there in search of Apple Island, always towing after him the “Horn o’ Plenty,” with the corsairs on board, but never an island with a school on it could they find; and one day old Baragat came to the Captain and said: 

“If I were you, sir, I’d sail no more in these warm regions.  I am quite sure that apples grow in colder latitudes, and are never found so far south as this.”

“That is a good idea,” said Captain Covajos.  “We should sail for the north if we wished to find an island of apples.  Have the vessel turned northward.”

And so, for days and weeks, the two vessels slowly moved on to the north.  One day the Captain made some observations and calculations, and then he hastily summoned Baragat.

“Do you know,” said he, “that I find it is now near the end of November, and I am quite certain that we shall not get to the port where my son lives in time to celebrate last Christmas again.  It is dreadfully slow work, towing after us the ‘Horn o’ Plenty,’ full of corsairs, wherever we go.  But we cannot cast her off and sail straight for our port, for I should lose my good ship, the merchants would lose all their money, and the corsairs would go unpunished; and, besides all that, think of the misery of the parents and guardians of those poor boys.  No; I must endeavor to find Apple Island.  And if I cannot reach port in time to spend last Christmas with my son, I shall certainly get there in season for Christmas before last.  It is true that I spent that Christmas with my daughter, but I cannot go on to her now.  I am much nearer the city where my son lives; and, besides, it is necessary to go back, and give the merchants their money.  So now we shall have plenty of time, and need not feel hurried.”

“No,” said Baragat, heaving a vast sigh, “we need not feel hurried.”

The mind of the eldest boy now became very much troubled, and he called his companions about him.  “I don’t like at all,” said he, “this sailing to the north.  It is now November, and, although it is warm enough at this season in the southern part of the sea, it will become colder and colder as we go on.  The consequence of this will be that those corsairs will want winter clothes, they will take them out of the Captain’s chests, and they will find our fruit.”