CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BURNING OF THE "WILDFIRE." "Aunt Emily," as the children called her at once, because she was Edna May's aunt, welcomed them as warmly as Captain May had done, and everything in the cabin of the Wildfire was so comfortable that they felt at home at once.

Supper was ready as soon as they were, and as they sat down to it Mark said he wished "Aunt Clo" could see it, for he thought it would give her some new ideas of what Yankees had to eat.
After supper each of the children wrote a letter home, and Mark and Captain May walked up to the post-office to mail them.
About nine o'clock a tug came for the ship, and very soon they had bid good-bye to Savannah, and were dropping down the muddy river towards the sea.

As it was a fine moonlit night, the children stayed on deck with Mrs.Coburn to see what they could of the river, which here forms the boundary line between the States of Georgia and South Carolina.

On both sides, as far as they could see, the marshes were covered with fields of growing rice, and every now and then they heard the sound of music coming from the funny little negro cabins which were scattered here and there along the banks.
They passed the old forts Jackson and Pulaski, both on the south side of the river, and both deserted and falling to ruin, and very soon had left behind Tybee Island, with its flashing light, at the mouth of the river.

The tug left them when they reached the siren buoy that keeps up a constant moaning on the outer bar; one after another of the ship's sails were loosed and "sheeted home," and then Captain May said it was "high time for the watch below to turn in." The sea was so calm and beautiful the next day that even Mark did not feel ill, nor was he during the voyage.