So near the ocean was he now that one of the enchanting sea-maidens leapt out of the foam towards him, and winding her arms round his neck, she pressed her lips to his beak. Instantly a terrible change too place! The song of the sea-maidens turned to cruel laughter. The golden tresses of their hair became coarse seaweed. Their eyes glowed with a pale green light, and their lips grew hard and cruel. The Albatross fell to the water--dead! After floating some moments, the bird began to sink, and the terrified children tried to fly away, but found that their wings had gone! The sea-maidens swam round and round them, and one, bolder than the rest, reached out of the water and tried to grasp hold of one of Coppertop’s plaits, but Tibbs rushed bravely forward and thrust his sister behind him. “Look! Look at her face!” screamed Coppertop. “It’s exactly like Mrs. Grudge!” “’Es, so it is! With all her teeth--sharp ones!” cried Kiddiwee. And now a very strange thing happened. As the poor Albatross lay stretched upon the ocean, slowly sinking, from the four corners of his body arose four carved posts, and his back became a large feather mattress! [Illustration: The Four-Posted Bed at Sea.] Before Coppertop, Tibbs or Kiddiwee could recover from their astonishment, the Albatross turned into the old four-posted Bed! “That’s the second time you’ve saved us!” cried Coppertop, clapping her hands with joy. “When we get home, I’ll buy you a real golden counterpane, and you shall live in a crystal case, and never be slept on unless you wish.” As for the sea-maidens--they were so annoyed at being cheated of their prey, that they sank beneath the ocean and were seen no more. CHAPTER X. SHIPWRECKED “Do these belong to you, my dears?” said a large voice behind them, as they were sailing peacefully along on the old Bed. And looking round, they beheld a black form towering above them. “It’s old Skipper Blubberkins--the Whale!” exclaimed Tibbs. “I found these floating around,” continued their huge friend, “after you left. I shouldn’t wonder but what they were washed off by that sudden shower we had,” he added, gurgling gleefully at the remembrance of his little joke, at the same time holding up an immense fin, upon which lay three pairs of gauzy wings. “Oh, you dear, great person!” cried Coppertop. And I think that she would have embraced him, then and there, had there been any part small enough for her to put her arms round. “Thanks awfully. You’re an old sport!” cried Tibbs. And Kiddiwee lisped, “You’re the beautifullest whale of all the whales, you are!” And the Whale was so overcome by all this praise, that he dived beneath the waves to hide his blushes. A gentle breeze sprang up, and the old bed sailed merrily over the waves with her cargo of happy adventurers. They were sailing so fast that Coppertop felt sure that they would catch the West Wind before he blew away to his home in Africa.