But though slowly gathering clouds told that wind was coming, the yacht now lay becalmed, drifting with the ebb tide.

The pleasure-seekers had been together all day, and were decidedly talked out.

For the last hour they had been singing songs--always omitting Mr.Pierce, who never so trifled with his vocal organs.

During this time he had been restless.

At one point he had attempted to deliver his opinion on the relation of verse to music, but an unfeeling member of the party had struck up "John Brown's Body," and his lecture had ended, in the usual serial style, at the most interesting point, without even the promise of a "continuation in our next." Finally, however, the singers had sung themselves hoarse in the damp night air, the last "Spanish Cavalier" had been safely restored to his inevitable true-love, and the sound of voices and banjo floated away over the water.