She was quite empty and lay high and dry on three low chocks.

Ruggiero lay down, getting as close to the keel as he could and Sebastiano followed his example.

They lay head to head so that they could talk in a whisper.
"Why are we not to speak of his fishing ?" asked the younger boy.
"Who knows?
But if we do as he tells us he will give us more bread to-morrow." "He is very good to us." "Because we beat Don Pietro Casale.

Don Pietro cheated him last year.

I saw the cottonseed oil he mixed with the good, in that load we brought down." "Perhaps the fishing is not for fish," suggested little Sebastiano, curling himself up and laying his head on the end of the chock.
They did not know what time it was when Don Antonino gently stirred them with his big foot.