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206 put in Ben Stanhope. "Let him coil up the ropes as they come down."

"Well, go on and do that, then," growled the owner of the Sunflower, and he proceeded to another part of the boat.

The wreckage was soon cleared away, Ben Stanhope working in the foretop, and Franklin and the other sailors on the deck. The lightning and thunder still continued, and the rain beat steadily in their faces; but it was apparent that the worst of the storm was over.

"Don't want no more like this!" exclaimed Ben Stanhope, as he came down on deck, completely exhausted. "Say, boys, but that was a close shave, wasn't it?"

All hands agreed that it was, and Franklin said he wished he would never see another storm like it.

But, as quickly as it had come on, the storm passed by just as rapidly. By ten o'clock the sun was shining once more, and the rain had ceased entirely.

As soon as the deck had been thoroughly cleared, Franklin was sent to the galley once more to help Jeffers, the cook, prepare breakfast. He was kept in the galley nearly the whole of the day, and, as Jeffers proved a hard man to work for, the young electrician was completely tired out when night came.

"We ought to be somewhere near Milwaukee by