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EmLlMV  ISLAND el TO IE S.
THE
YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS
EhILM ISLAND.I
BY
REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG,
AUTH01R OF " LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND," " CHARLIE BELL OF ELM ISLAND,"
"THE ARK OF ELM ISLAND," "THE BOY FARMERS OF ELM
ISLAND," " TIIE IIARD SCRABBLE OF
ELLM ISLAND," ETC.
BOSTON:
LEE AND S HEPARD.
1870.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
LEE AND SHEPARD,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE
BOSTON  STEREOTYPE FOUNDRT9
19 Spring Lane.




PREFACE.
THnE natural progress of this series has brought
us to a period in the history of our young friends,
when, instead of labors in a measure voluntary,
pursued at home, amid home comforts, they toil
for exacting masters or the public, enter into
competition with others, feel the pressure of responsibility, learn submission, and are tied down
to rigid rules and severe tasks. The manner in
which they meet and sustain these new and
trying relations shows the stuff they are made
of; that the fear of God in a young heart is a
shield in the hour of temptation, the foundation
of true courage, and the strongest incentive to
manly effort; that he who does the best for his
employer does the best for himself; that the
(3)




4                  PREFACE.
boy in whose character are the germs of sterling worth, and a true manhood, will scorn to
lead a useless life, eat the bread he has not
earned, and live upon the bounty of parents
and friends.




ELM ISLAND STORIES.
1. LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND.
2. CHARLIE BELL, THE WAIF OF ELM ISLAND.
3. THE ARK OF ELM ISLAND.
4. THE BOY FARMERS OF ELM ISLAND.
5. THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
6. THE HARD SCRABBLE OF ELM ISLAND. In press.








CONTENTS.
cIAPTER                                      PAGE
I. LEARNING A TRADE..........   9
II. GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS....  21
III. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS........  37
IV. THE WEST WIND..........    53
V. HAPS AND MISHAPS...  71
VI. PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER.  89
VII. CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS WHILE IN BOSTON. 107
VIII. No GIVE UP TO CHARLIE......  120
IX. CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE..   133
X. WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.   146
XI. POMP'S POND...........  152
XII. CHARLIE UNCONSCIOUSLY PREFIGURES THE
FUTURE..                            166
XIII. BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE...  186
XIV. VICTORY AT LAST..... 196
XV. THE SURPRISER SURPRISED....... 207
(7)




8                   CONTENTS.
COPTER                                       PAGE
XVI. WHY CHARLIE DIDN'T WANT TO SELL THE
WINGS OF THE MORNING.....  222
XVII. CHARLIE FXPLORING THE COAST...   236
XVIII. CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.... 256
XIX. CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.              272
XX. THE  FIRST  TROUBLE  AND THE FIRST
PRAYER.                            289




THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS
OF
ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER I.
LEARNING A TRADE.
THE question, What shall I do in life? is, to an
industrious, ambitious boy, desirous to make the
most of himself, quite a trying one.
Thoughts of that nature were busy at the heart
of John Rhines; he now had leisure to indulge
them, as, upon his return from Elm Island, he
found that the harvesting was all secured, and
the winter school not yet commenced. The
whole summer had been one continued scene of
hard work and pleasurable excitement. Missing
his companions, being somewhat lonesome and at
a loss what to do with himself, he would take his
gun,, wander off in the woods, and sitting down




10 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
on a log, turn the matter over in his mind. At
one time he thought of going into the forest and
cutting out a farm, as Ben had done; he had often
talked the matter over with Charlie, who cherished similar ideas. Sometimes he thought of
learning a trade, but could not settle upon one
that suited him, for which, he conceived, he had
a capacity. Again, he thought of being a sailor;
but he knew that both father and mother would
be utterly opposed to it. While thus debating
with himself, that Providence, which we believe
has much to do with human occupations, determined the whole matter in the easiest and most
natural manner imaginable. John Rhines, though
a noble boy to work, had never manifested any
mechanical ability or inclination whatever.  If
he wanted anything made, he would go over to
Uncle Isaac and do some farming work for him,
while he made it for him.
It so happened, while he was thus at leisure,
that his father sent him down to the shop of Peter
Brock with a crowbar, to have it forged over.
(The readers of the previous volume well know
that Ben, when at home, had tools made on purpose for him, which nobody else could handle.)
This was Ben's bar. Captain Rhines had deter



LERNING A TRADE.             1
mined to make two of it, and sent it to the shop
with orders to cut it in two parts, draw them
down, and steel-point them. John, having flung
down the bar and delivered the message, was
going home again, when Peter said, —
"Won't you strike for me to draw this down?
It's a big piece of iron. My apprentice, Sam
Rounds, has gone home sick; besides, when I
weld the steel on, I must have somebody to take
it out of the fire and hold it for me, while I
weld it."
"I had rather do it than not, Peter. I want
something to do, for I feel kind of lonesome."
Stripping off his jacket, he caught up the big
sledge, and soon rendered his friend efficient aid.
"There's not another boy in town could swing
that sledge," said Peter. "Do you ever expect to
be as stout as Ben?"
"I don't know; I should like to be."
"Are you done on the island? "
" Yes."
"They say you three boys did a great summer's
work."
" We did the best we could."
"I know that most of the people thought it
wasn't a very good calculation in your brother




12 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Ben to go off and leave three boys to plan for
themselves, and that there wouldn't be much
done-at any rate that's the way I heard them
talk while they were having their horses shod."
"That was just what made us work. If a
man hires me, and then goes hiding behind the
fences, and smelling round, to see whether I am
at work or not, I don't think much of him; but if
he trusts me, puts confidence in me, won't I work
for that man! Yes, harder than I would for myself.  But what did they say when they came
home from husking?"
"0, the boot was on the other leg then; there
never was such crops of corn and potatoes raised
in this town before on the same ground.  Has
your father got his harvest in?"
c" Yes. "
"Well, I've got a lot of axes to make for the
logging swamp; my, apprentice has got a fever; I
must have some one to strike; I tried for Joe
Griffin, but he's going into the woods, and Henry
too; why can't you help me?"
"I don't know how."
"All I want of you is to blow and strike; you
will soon learn to strike fair; you are certainly
strong enough."




LEARNING A TRADE.            13
"Reckon I am. I can lift your load, and you on
top of it."
"Well, then, why can't you help me? I'm sure
I don't know what I shall do."
"If father is willing, I'll help you till school
begins."
The result was, that John, in a short time,
evinced, not only a great fondness, but also a remarkable capacity for the work, made flounder and
eel-spears, clam-forks, and mended all his father's
broken hay-forks and other tools.
John worked with Peter till school began. The
day before going to school, he went to see Charlie,
as passing to and from the island in winter was so
difficult they seldom met.
To the great surprise of Charlie, Ben, and Sally,
who never knew John to be guilty of making anything, he presented Charlie with two iron anchors
for the Sea-foam, with iron stocks and rings complete, and Ben with an eel-spear and clam-fork,
very neatly made.' What neat little things they are!" said Charlie, looking at the anchors. "Where did you get
them?"
"Made them," replied John, " at Peter's shop."
"Why, John," said Ben, " you've broken out in
a bran-new place I "




14  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
John then told him that he had been at work
in the blacksmith's shop, how well he liked it, and
that, after school was out, he meant to ask his
father to let him learn the trade.
"John," said Ben, "Uncle Isaac, Joe Griffin, and
myself have been talking this two years about going outside gunning. If I go, I want to go before
the menhaden are all gone; for we shall want bait,
in order that we may fish as well as gun. It is
late now, and the first north-easter will drive the
menhaden all out of the bay."
"I heard him and Joe talking about it the other
day; they said they calculated to go."
"Well, tell them I'm ready at any time, and to
come on, whenever they think it is suitable."
John and Charlie went to the shore to sail the
Sea-foam, - a boat, three feet long, rigged into a
schooner, —and try the new anchors. While they
were looking at her, Charlie fell into a reverie.
"'Didn't she go across quick, that time, Charlie? "
No reply.
" Charlie, didn't she steer herself well then? "
Still no answer.
"What are you thinking about, Charlie?"
"You see what a good wind she holds, John?"
"Yes."




LEARNING-A TRADE.            15
"And how well she works, just like any vessel?"
"Well, then, what is the reason we couldn't
dig out a boat big enough to sail in, and model
her just like that?  These canoes are not much
better than hog's troughs."
"It would take an everlasting great log to have
any room inside, except right in the middle."
" We could dig her out very thin, and make her
long enough to make up for the sharp ends."
"It would be a great idea. I should like dearly
to try it."
The boys now went to bed and talked boat till
they worked themselves into a complete fever, and
were fully determined to realize this novel idea;
for, as is generally the case in such matters, the
more they deliberated upon and took counsel about
it, the more feasible it seemed; then they considered and magnified the astonishmenrt of Fred and
Captain Rhines when they should sail over in their
new craft, and finally settled down into the belief
that, if they realized their idea, it would not fall
one whit short of the conception and construction
of the Ark herself.
But the main difficulty — and it was one that
seemed to threaten failure to the whole matter



i6  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
was, where to obtain a log, as one of sufficient size
for that purpose would make a mast for a ship of
the line, and was too valuable, even in those days,
to cut for a plaything, as it was by no means certain that she would ever be anything more: there
were indeed trees enough, with short butts, large
enough for their purpose, had they wanted to make
a common float, or a canoe, with round ends, like
a common tray; but, as they were to sharpen up
the ends vessel fashion, give her quite a sharp
floor, and take so much from the outside in order
to shape her, it was necessary that the tree should
be long, as well as large, to be recompensed by
length for the room thus taken from the inside,
and leave sufficient thickness of wood to hold
together.
While Charlie was debating in his own mind
whether to ask his father to permit him to
cut such a tree, John, with a flash of recollection
that sent the words from his lips with the velocity
of a shell from a mortar, exclaimed, jumping up
on end in bed,"I have it now! there's a log been lying all
summer in our cove, that came there in the last
freshet, with no mark on it, more than thirty feet
long, and I know it's more'n five feet through: it's




LEARNING A TRADE.           17
a bouncer, I tell you; but it's hollow at the butt,
and I suppose that's what they condemned it for;
but I don't believe the hollow runs in far. It's
mine, for I picked it up and fastened it."
"But you are going to school. You can't help
me make it; and we should have such a good
tine. It is too bad!"
" Well, I can do this much towards it. I don't
care a great deal about going to school the first
day; they won't do much. I'll help you tow it
over, and haul it up; and if you don't get it done
before, when school is done, I'll come on, help you
make sugar, and finish the boat."
" Then I won't do any more than to dig some
of it out. I won't make the outside till you
come."
In the morning they went over to look at it, and
found the hollow only extended about four feet.
It was afloat and fastened with a rope, just as
John had secured it in the spring. They towed
it home without attracting notice, as they considered it very important to keep the matter secret
till the craft was completed.
"Then," said Charlie, "if we should spoil the
log, and don't make a boat, there will be nobody
to laugh at us."
2




18  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Putting down skids, they hauled it up on to
the grass ground with the oxen, and, with a crosscut saw, made it the right length. As all above
the middle of the log had to be cut away, and was
of no use to them, it was evident, that if they
could split it in halves, the other half would make
a canoe, clapboards, or shingles.
"This is a beautiful log," said Charlie. "It is
too bad to cut half of it into chips. It is straightgrained and clear of knots; we will split it."
"' Split it!" said John; "'twould take a week!"
" No, it won't. We can split it with powder."
"I never thought of that."
They bored holes in the log at intervals of three
feet, filled them part full of powder, and drove in
a plug with a score cut in the side of it. Into this
they poured powder, to communicate with that in
the hole. They then laid a train, and touched
them all at once, when the log flew apart in an
instant, splitting as straight as the two halves of
an acorn.
"I'll take the half you don't want, boys," said
Ben, who, unnoticed, had watched their proceedings; "it will make splendid clapboards."
During the winter, on half holidays, and at
every leisure moment, John Rhines was to be




LEARNING A TRADE.            19
found at the blacksmith's shop. At length he
could contain himself no longer, but went to his
father and asked permission to learn the blacksmith's trade of Peter. John anticipated a hard
struggle in obtaining his father's consent, if indeed he obtained it at all, as there was a large farm
to take care of, plenty to do at home, and enough
to do with. But Captain Rhines, who had always
said, if a boy would only work steadily, his own
inclinations should be consulted in choice of occupation, was so rejoiced to find he didn't want to
go to sea, of which he had always been apprehensive, that he yielded the point at once.
" It is a good trade, John," said he, "and always
will be; but I wouldn't think of learning a trade
of Peter."
1" Why not, father?"
" Because he's no workman; he's just a botcher."
"Who shall I learn of?"
"I'll tell you, my son; go to Portland and learn
to do ship-work; there's money in that; shipbuilding is going to be the great business along
shore for many a year to come. You'll make more
money forging fishermen's anchors, or doing the
iron-work of a vessel, in one season, than you
would mending carts, shoeing old horses and oxen,




20  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
making axes, pitchforks, and chains in three years.
My old friend, Captain Starrett, has a brother who
is a capital workman, a finished mechanic, learned
his trade in the old country — and his wife is a
first-rate woman; she went from this town. I'll
get you a chance there."
Captain Rhines went to Portland in the course
of the winter, and secured an opportunity for John
to begin to work the first of May.




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.    21
CHAPTER II.
GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.
BEN thought it was now a favorable time to do
something to the house, and made up his mind to
speak to Uncle Isaac and Sam when they came on
for their gunning excursion, in order to obtain the
aid of one to do the joiner, and the other the
mason work, for he and Charlie could do the outside work. While preparing the cargo of the Ark,
Ben had laid by, from time to time, such handsome,
clear boards and plank as he came across, which
were now thoroughly seasoned, having been kept
in the chamber of the house. He also had on
hand shingles and clapboards.
They now began to remove the hemlock bark
from the roof, and replace it with shingles. To
work with tools, to make something for his father
and mother, was ever a favorite employment of
Charlie.
Aside from this, his great delight was to make
boats; his house under the big maple was half full




22  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
of boats, of all sizes, from three inches to two feet
long. As he sat by the fire in the evenings, he
was almost always whittling out a boat. When he
went to Boston, in the Perseverance, he sought the
ship-yards and boat-builders' shops. He had a boat
on each corner of the barn, one on the top of the
big pine, and one on the maple, besides having
made any number for John, Fred, and little Bob
Smullen.
He was now greatly exercised in spirit in respect
to the boat he was to make from the big log. He
had resolved to make a model, and then imitate it,
and was racking his brain in respect to the proportions; for he was very anxious she should be a
good sailer.
He had not a moment to spare while they were
shingling the house, it being necessary to do it
quickly, for fear of rain; but the moment the roof
was completed, he hid himself in the woods, and
with blocks set to work upon the model.
While thus busied, he recollected having heard
Captain Rhines say, that if anybody could model
t vessel like a fish, it would sail fast enough. He
thought a mackerel was the fastest fish within his
reach.
"There are mackerel most always round the




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.    23
wash rocks," said he. " I'll model her after a
mackerel."
The next morning, just before sunrise, he was
off the reef, in the "Twilight," and succeeded in
catching three mackerel and some rock-fish. Not
wishing any spectators of his proceedings, he hid
the biggest mackerel in some water, to keep him
plump, took the others, and went in to breakfast.
He next took some of the blue clay from the bed
of the brook, that was entirely free from stones and
grit, and would not dull a razor; and, mixing
it with water and sand, till it was of the right
consistence, put it into a trough. Into this paste
he carefully pressed the fish; then he took up the
trough, and, finding a secret place at the shore,
where the sun would come with full power, he
placed it on the rocks, and sifted sand an inch
thick over the clay and fish, and left it to harden.
In the course of three days, he found the fish
had putrefied, and the clay gradually hardened
under the sand without breaking. He now swept
off the sand, exposing it to the full force of the
sun till it was completely dry; then he made a
slow fire, and put the trough and clay into it, increasing the heat gradually till he burned the
trough away, and left the clay with the exact




24  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
impress of the mackerel in it, as red and hard
as a brick.
"There's the shape of the mackerel, anyhow,"
said Charlie, contemplating his work with great
satisfaction; "but how I'm going to get a model
from it is the question; however, there is time
enough to think of that between this and
spring."
He deposited his model in his house under
the great maple, and devoted all his time to
helping his father improve the appearance of the
house.
Our readers will recollect that the logs, of which
the house was built, were hewed square at the
corners and windows; so Ben and Charlie just
built a staging, and, stretching a chalk line, hewed'
the whole broadside from the ridge-pole to the sill
square with the corners. They accomplished this
quite easily at the ends, but on the front and back
it was more difficult to hew the top log under the
eaves; but they worked it out with the adze.
Originally the house had but two windows on a
side, and, as these were on the corners to admit of
putting in others, it looked queer enough. They
now cut out places for two more in a side, and intended, after having smoothed the walls, to clap



GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.       25
board them; but their work was interrupted for
the time by the arrival of Uncle Isaac, Joe Griffin,
Uncle Sam, and Captain Rhines, to go on the longtalked-of gunning excursion.
"I don't see," said Uncle Isaac, "how you do
so much work; I think it is wonderful, the amount
you and this boy have done since we were here."
"There's one thing you don't consider," said
Ben: "a person here is not hindered; there's not
some one running in and out all the time, and he
is not stopping to look at people that go along the
road; he's not plagued with other people's cattle,
and don't have to fence against them; he's not out
evenings visiting, but goes to bed when he has
done work, and the next morning he feels keen to
go to work again. It's my opinion, if a man is
contented, he will stand his work better, live
longer, and be happier, on one of these islands
than anywhere else."
As they were to start at twelve o'clock at night,
they went to bed at dark. Captain Rhines slept
on board the vessel, as he could wake at any hour
he chose. He was to call the others if the weather
was good; if not, they were to wait for another
chance. It was bright moonlight; a little wind,
north-west, just enough to carry them along, and




26  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
perfectly smooth. The place to which they were
bound was an outlying rock in the open ocean,
more than seven miles beyond the farthest land,
upon which, even in calm weather, the ground
swell of the ocean broke in sheets of white foam,
and with a roar like thunder; but when a strong
northerly wind had been blowing for a day or two,
it drove back the ground swell, and when the
northerly wind in its turn died away, there would
be a few hours, and sometimes a day or two, of
calm, when there was not the least motion, and
you might land on the rock; but it was a delicate
and dangerous proceeding, requiring great watchfulness, for although there might be no wind at
the spot, yet the wind blowing at sea, miles distant, might in a few moments send in the ground
swell and cut off all hope of escape. As the north
wind made no ground swell, the rock could be
approached on the south side, even when a moderate north wind was blowing.
They were familiar with all these facts, and had
accordingly chosen the last of a norther, that had
been blowing two days, and was dying away.
Some hours before day they arrived at the
place - a large barren rock, containing about three
acres, with a little patch of grass on the highest




GUNNING ON THIE OUTER REEFS.       27
part of it, and a spring of pure water, that spouted
up from the crevices in the rock; a quantity of
wild pea vines and bayberry bushes were growing
there, among which, in little hollows in the rock,
the sea-gulls laid their eggs, without any attempt
at a nest.
As they neared the rock, they sailed through
whole flocks of sea-birds; some of them, asleep on
the water, with their heads beneath their wings,
took no notice of them; others, as they heard the
slight ripple made by the vessel's bows, flew or
swam to a short distance, and then remained quiet.
Not a word was spoken save in whisper, when,
at a short distance outside the rock, the sails were
gently lowered, and the anchor silently dropped
without a splash to the bottom. The "decoys,"
that is, wooden blocks made and painted in imitation of sea-birds, and the guns, were put into the
canoe, and landing in a little cove, they gently
hauled the canoe upon the sea-weed, and anchored
their decoys with lines and stones a little way
from the rock, so as to present the appearance of a
flock of sea-fowl feeding, and, lying down, awaited
daybreak.
The sea-fowl lie outside during the night, but as
the day breaks they begin to fly into the bay after




28  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
food and water, and when they see the decoys,
they light down among them and are shot; they
are also shot on the wing as they fly over; and in
those days they were very numerous among all the
rocks and islands.
It was a terribly wild and desolate place; the
tide at half ebb revealed the rock in its full proportions; on the shore side it ran out into long, broken
points, ragged and worn, with innumerable holes
and fissures, fringed with kelp, whose dark-red
leaves, matted with green, lay upon the surface
of the water; while on the-ocean side, the long,
upright cliffs dropped plump into the sea, and
were covered with a peculiar kind of sea-weed,
short, because, worn by the ceaseless action of the
waves, it had no time to grow: all impressed
the mind with a singular feeling of loneliness and
desolation.
These hardy men, born among the surf, and by
no means given to sentiment, could not repress a
feeling of awe, as they lay there silent, and listened
to the roar of the sea, that rolled in eddies of white
foam among the ragged points, being raised by the
north wind, while on the other side there was not
a motion.
There is something in the hoarse roar of the




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.        29
surf, when heard in the dead hours of night on
such a spot, that is more than sublime- it is cruel,
relentless. As we listen to it in such a place, from
which there is more than a possibility that we
may not escape, we realize how impotent is the
strength or skill of man against the terrific rush
of waters. We call to mind how many death-cries
that sullen roar has. drowned, how many mighty
ships that gray foam has ground to powder, and
look narrowly to see if the giant that thus moans
in his slumbers is not about to rouse himself for
our destruction. Yet to strong natures there is
an indescribable charm that clings to places and
perils like these, and does not fade away with the
occasion, but lives in the memory ever after.
These men could have shot sea-fowl enough near
home, without fatigue or peril; but that very safety
would have diminished the pleasure.
It was evident that thoughts similar to those we
have described were passing through Ben's mind.
He said, in a whisper, "Uncle Isaac, do you
suppose the sea ever breaks over here?"
"I suppose it does," was the reply; "but only
when a very high tide and a gale of wind come
together. Old Mr. Sam Edwards came on here
once in November, and his canoe broke her




30 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
painter and got away from him, and he had to stay
ten days, when a vessel took him off; but they had
a desperate time to get him; and when they got
him he couldn't speak. He piled up a great heap
of rocks to stand upon, to make signals to vessels,
and to keep the wind off; and when he went on
the next spring they were gone."
"But there is white clover growing here, and
red-top, which shows that the salt water cannot
come very often, nor stay very long when it does
come.;"
It was now getting towards day; they had three
guns apiece, which they loaded, and placed within
reach of their hands. As the day broke, the birds
began to come, first scattering, then in flocks; as
they came on, they continued to fire as fast as they
could load, the birds falling by dozens into the
water, until the birds were done flying, the sun
being well up.
They now took the canoe and picked up the
dead and wounded birds, many of the latter
requiring a second shot, then going on board the
schooner with their booty, got their breakfast,
after which they ran off ten miles to sea, on to a
shoal, to try for codfish; and as they had menhaden
and herring for bait, they caught them in plenty.




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.       31
"Halloo!" said Ben; "I've got a halibut; stand
by, father, with the gaff."
They caught three more in the course of the
forenoon. After dinner they split and salted their
fish, and cutting out the nape and fins of the halibut, threw all the rest away, as in those days they
did not think it worth saving.
"Now," said Uncle Isaac, "what do you think
of having a night at the hake?"
They ran into muddy bottom near to the rock,
anchored, and lay down to sleep till dark, and
then began to catch hake. The hake is a fish
that feeds on the muddy bottom, and bites best in
the night.
Just before day they went on to the rock again,
and shot more birds than before. Uncle Isaac and
the others were so much engrossed with their
sport, that they thought of nothing else. But Ben,
who was naturally vigilant, and had noticed that
there was a little air of wind to the south, and the
sea had a different motion, kept his eye upon it,
and shoved the canoe to the edge of the water.
All at once he exclaimed, in startling tones, -
" To the boat! The sea is coming! "
They seized their guns, and sprang into the
canoe.




32  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"I'll shove off," said Ben.
Uncle Isaac and Captain Rhines took the oars,
while Uncle Sam, on his knees, was ready to bale
out what water might come in.
The great black wave could now be seen rolling
up higher and higher as it came. Ben, giving the
canoe a vigorous shove, which sent her some yards
from the rock, leaped in, and grasped the steering
paddle, keeping  her directly on to meet the
threatening wave. As she met it and rose upon
it, she stood almost upright; and for a moment it
seemed as if she would fall back and be dashed on
the rock; but the powerful strokes of the resolute
oarsmen, added to the momentum she had already
attained, forced her up the ascent, and they were
safe. Had they been twice her length nearer the
rock, they had been lost, as the sea, arrested in its
progress by the rock, " combed" (curled over),
when nothing could have saved them.
"' A miss is as good as a mile," said the captain,
as he looked back and saw the spot where they
had so lately stood white with foam.
"I've left my best powder-horn," said Ben.
"We've left a couple dozen of birds," said Uncle
Isaac; "but we've enough without them."
They now dressed the fish they had caught,




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.    33
went to sleep, and slept till noon; then, as they
had a fair wind home, debated, while sitting in the
little cabin, what they should do more.
"We have some bait left," said Uncle Isaac;
"we ought to do something more."
"Hark!" cried  the captain, whose ear had
caught a familiar sound; "mackerel, as I am a
sinner!"
Rushing on deck, they saw mackerel all around
the vessel, leaping from the water, their white
bellies glancing in the sun. In a moment lines
were thrown over with bait, and soon numbers of
them were flapping on the deck.
It was now near sundown, the wind began to
blow in fitful gusts, and once in a while, amid the
constant dash of waves, a great sea would come
and break with a roar far above the general dash
of waters. But they were too eager in the pursuit
of their prize to heed the weather.
At length a few drops of rain falling on the
captain's bare arms caused him to look up and
around.
He instantly exclaimed,"Haul in your lines; we must be out of this;
we are full near enough to these breakers to have
them under our lee, and night coming on."
3




34  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
It was a most perilous position to the eye of a
landsman, and not without risk to them. The
vessel was rolling heavily at her anchor less than
a quarter of a mile from the rock, and abreast of
the middle and highest part of it, while its long,
shoal points stretched out each way for more than
a mile, white with foam; the whole ground also,
for three or four miles around the rock, was full
of shoal spots and sunken reefs, which made a bad,
irregular sea; and the roar from so many breakers
was terrible. But if there is anything that will do
its duty in a heavy head-beat sea, it is an oldfashioned pinkie.
As the little craft, gathering way, came up to
the wind, the sea poured in floods over her bows,
while, with whole sail and her lee rail under water,
she jumped through it, and gradually drew off
from the dangerous reefs.
Leaving the long reefs to the leeward, they now
kept away before it with a fair wind for home.
Taking in all but the foresail, they went along
under moderate sail, that they might split their
fish as they went, and before dark.
When they reached the island, it was quite
dusk. The sea was pouring in sheets of foam
upon the rocks, and the white froth, drifting to




GUNNING ON THE OUTER REEFS.        35
leeward, had filled the main channel; so that
to enter it seemed, to an inexperienced eye, to
be rushing into the very jaws of destruction; but,
as they dashed along by the very edge of the
surf that fringed the "Junk of Pork," just when
the little vessel, rising on the crest of a -tremendous wave, seemed to be rushing directly on the
rocks, Ben, who stood at the fore-sheet, hauled it
aft, the captain put down his helm, and the vessel,
luffing up, shot through the froth and around the
point into the quiet harbor in front of the house.
Uncle Isaac let go the anchor, and in a moment
she was peacefully riding where there was not a
ripple, with the roar of surf all around her, and
bunches of white froth drifting lazily alongside.
It is these strong contrasts which make the
charm of life along shore, and that so attach rugged spirits to the sea; and though those who live
among these scenes do not talk about them  as
others do, who seldom witness them, yet they feel
them, and they are a part of their life. Taking
out the birds and guns, they put them into the
canoe to take on shore. Charlie met them there,
and was dumb with astonishment at the sight of
so many birds.
They were wet, tired, cold, and hungry, for they




36  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
had been fishing day and night; but as they entered the house, all was changed. A blazing fire
was roaring in the great chimney, and flinging its
cheerful light on the bright pewter on the dressers
and snow-white floor.
The table stood in the floor, covered with smoking victuals, and Sally, with her handsome face
shining with joy, stood ready to greet her husband. Sailor was at her side, wagging his tail
with frantic violence, ready to jump upon his
master as soon as Sally should release him.
There were also warm water, soap, and towels to
wash the "gurry" from their hands, and the salt
of the spray from their faces.  Great was the
physical and mental happiness of these tired,
hungry men, as they sat down to eat, conscious
that they had succeeded in their efforts, and obtained the means of comfort and support for their
families.
Perhaps some of our readers may think it
strange that Ben should want to go fishing when
he had been engaged in that business all summer;
but the fish caught in the hot weather were salted
very heavily, in order to keep them, and that they
might bear exportation to all parts of the world;
but.these were to be slack salted for their own use.




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.          37
CHAPTER  III.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
BEFORE his father and friends returned home,
Ben agreed with Uncle Isaac and Sam to come
and commence work on the house whenever he
should send for thei, and at the same time made
an arrangement with his father to take some fish
and lumber to Salem in the schooner, and procure
for him some bricks, hearth-tiles, window-glass,
door-hinges, latches, materials for making putty,
and other things needed about the house.
"My nephew, Sam Atkins," said Uncle Isaac,
"who is a capital workman, is coming home to stay
a good part of the winter. He works on all the
nicest houses in Salem. I'll bring him on with
me."
It may not be amiss, for the information of those
who have not read the first volume of the series,
to glance for a moment at the house, in respect to
which all these improvements were contemplated.
Ben wanted to dig a cellar, a few rods off, and




38  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
build A good frame house, of two stories; but
Sally preferred to finish the old walls. She said
it was large enough, that the timber walls would
be warmer than any frame house, and she loved
the first spot.  "Better save the money to buy
cows, or to help some young man along that
wanted a vessel."
The kitchen extended the whole length of the
house, and occupied half its width. At the eastern
end a door opened directly to the weather; there
was no entry. In the corner beside the door was
a ladder, by which access was gained to the chamber through a scuttle in the floor.
Against the wall at the other end were the
dressers, and under them a small closet. There
was no finish around the chimney, and on either
side of it two doors, of rough boards, hung on
wooden hinges, opened into the front part of the
house, which was in one large room. The cellar,
which only extended under the front part of the
house, was reached by a trap door.
The floors were well laid, of clear stuff, and the
kitchen floor was white and smooth by the use of
soap, and sand, and much friction.
The first thing Ben did when his men, Uncle
Isaac, Atkins, and Robert Yelf, came, was to build




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.         39
a porch, into which was moved Charlie's sink, and
at one end of which a store-room was made, where
Sally could do part of her work, while everything
was in confusion.
During the time the joiners were at work upon
the porch, Ben and Charlie dug a cellar under the
rest of the house, hauled the rocks from the shore,
and Uncle Sam built the wall, and also took up
the stone hearths in the front part of the house,
and laid them with tiles, and built two fireplaces.
He also laid a hearth with tiles in the kitchen,
leaving a large stone in one corner to wash
dishes on.
"Ben," said Uncle Sam, "I told you, when I
laid your door-steps, that they were the best of
granite, and would make as handsome steps as any
in the town of Boston, and that whenever you
built a new house, if I was not past labor, I would
dress them for you. I have brought on my tools,
and now am going to do it."
"I'm very much obliged to you, Uncle Sam, but
I am able and willing to pay you for it now."
"No, you ain't going to pay me;'twill be something for you to remember me by."
They now set up their joiner's bench in the
front part of the house, where they could have a




40  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
fire in cold days. Ben and Charlie worked with
them, and the work went on apace. At Sally's request, they began with the kitchen, removing the
dressers from the western end, and finishing off a
bedroom, leaving room sufficient at the end for a
stairway to go down into a nice milk cellar, which
Uncle Sam had parted off, and floored with brick,
and the joiners put up shelves, with a glass window in the end, and another in the top of the door
that led to it from the kitchen. They also replaced
the dressers in the kitchen. At the eastern end
they made an entry, on one side of it a dark closet
to keep meats in from the flies, and on the other
chamber stairs, instead of the ladder, and under
these cellar stairs, replacing the old trap door.
They then finished the room, ceiling it, both the
walls and overhead. It was not customary then
to paint. Everything was left white, and scoured
with soap and sand. Carpets were not in vogue,
and floors were strewn with white sand.
Sally was jubilant, and declared it was nothing
but a pleasure to do work, with so many conveniences.
"I thought I was made," said she, " when I got
a sink, and especially a crane, instead of a birch
withe, to hang my pot on. Now I've got a sink,




INTERNAL IMPROVEMhENTS.         41
a crane, porch, meal-room, cellar stairs, chamber
stairs, milk cellar, and kitchen, all ceiled up."
In the front room. the work proceeded more
slowly, as there was a good deal of panel-work, and
this occupied a great deal of time.
There were then no planing mills, jig saws, circular saws, or mortising machines, but all was done
by hand labor. There were no cut nails then, but
all were wrought, with sharp points that split the
wood, which made it necessary to bore a great deal
with a gimlet.
A happy boy was Charlie Bell in these days, as
Uncle Isaac and Atkins gave him all the instruction in their power; and to complete the sum of
his enjoyment, after he had worked with them six
weeks, Uncle Isaac set him to making the front
and end doors of panel-work, under his immediate
inspection. He also had an opportunity to talk
about the Indians, and seemed to be a great deal
more concerned to know about their modes of
getting along, and manufacturing articles of necessity or ornament, without tools of iron, than about
their murdering and scalping.
Uncle Isaac could not, from personal knowledge,
give him much information in respect to these
matters, as, at the time he was among them, they




42  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
were, and had been for a long period, supplied,
both by the French and English, with guns,
knives, hatchets, needles, and files; but he could
furnish Charlie' with abundant information which
he had obtained from his Indian parents; for, as
they have no books, but trust to their memories,
they, by exercise, become very accurate, and their
traditions are, in this way, handed down from
ftther to son.
"But," said Charlie, who had heard about Indians having cornfields, "how could they cut down
trees and clear land with stone hatchets?"
"They didn't cut them down; they bruised the
bark, and girdled them, and then the trees died,
and they set them on fire."
"I should think it would have taken them forever, most, to clear a piece of land in that way."
"So it did; but they did not clear one very
often. When they got a field cleared, they planted corn on it perhaps for a hundred years."
"I should think it would have run out."
"They always made these fields by the salt
water, and put fish in the hills. They taught the
white people how to raise corn."
"I have heard they made log canoes.  How
could they cut the trees down with their stone




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.          43
hatchets? and, more than all, how could they ever
dig them out?"
" I will tell you, Mr. Inquisitive. An Indian
would take a bag of parched corn to eat, a gourd
shell to drink from, his stone hatchet, and go into
the woods, find a suitable tree, - generally a dead,
dry pine, with the limbs and bark all fallen ofi -
and at the foot of it would build a camp to sleep
under. Then he would get a parcel of wet clay,
and plaster the tree all around, then build a fire at
the bottom to burn it off. The wet clay would
prevent its burning too high up. Then he would
sit and tend the fire, wet the clay, and beat off the
coals as fast as they formed, till the tree fell; then
cut it off, and hollow it in the same way."'I should think it would have taken a lifetime."
"It did not take as long as you might suppose;
besides, time was nothing to them. They did no
work except to hunt, make a canoe, or bow and
arrows. The squaws did all the drudgery."
Uncle Isaac now went home to stay a week, and
see to his affairs, and Atkins with him. In this
interval, Charlie began to think about his longneglected boat. He had already the exact model
of the fish, but he wished to get it in a shape to




44  TH:E YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
work from. Mixing some more clay and sand, he
filled the mould with it, into which he had pressed
the fish, having first greased it thoroughly, that it
might not stick. He now set it to dry, putting it
in the cellar at night. When thoroughly dry, he
turned it out, made an oven of stones, and baked
it, so that it was in a state to be handled without
crumbling. He did not wish Ben or Sally to observe his proceedings; and, as it was too cold to
stay in the woods or barn, he resorted to his bedroom. Uncle Isaac, when there, slept with Charlie, and kept his chest beside their bed.
Charlie was sitting on the bed, with the model
in his hand, looking at it, and contriving how to
work from it; and so intently was he engaged, that
Uncle Isaac, who, unknown to him, had returned,
and wanted something from his chest, came upon
him before he could shove it under the bed.
" What have you got there, Charlie? "' O, Uncle Isaac, I'm so sorry to see you!"
"Sorry to see me, Charlie? Indeed, I'm sorry
to hear you say so."
" O, I didn't mean that," replied Charlie, excessively confused. "I - I - I- only meant that I
was sorry you caught me with this in my hand."
He then told Uncle Isaac what he was about,




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.           45
adding, in conclusion, " You see, when I am trying
to study anything out, I don't like to have folks
that know all about it looking on; it confuses and
quite upsets me."
" But if you ever make the boat, you will have
to make it out of doors, in plain sight."
"Yes, sir; but if I succeed in making a good
model, I know I can imitate it on a large scale, and
shan't be afraid then to do it before folks; but if I
can't, why, then I will burn the model up, and nobody will be the wiser for it, or know that I tried
and couldn't. I'm not afraid to have any one see
me handle tools."
"You have no reason to be, my boy. Yet, after
all, it was a very good thing that I surprised you
before you got any farther; for, had you built a
large boat after these lines, she never would have
been of any use to you."
"Why not?"
"Because this is precisely the shape of a mack,
erel, to a shaving."
"Well, don't a mackerel sail?"
"Yes, sail like blazes, uinder water; but I take it
you want your boat to sail on top of water. All a
fish has to do is to carry himself through the water;
but a boat or vessel has to carry cargo, and




46  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
bear sail. A vessel made after that model wouldn't
stand up in the harbor with her spars in, and a
boat made like it would have to be filled so full of
ballast, to keep her on her legs, that she would be
almost sunk; and the moment you put sail on her,
in anything of a working breeze, her after-sail
would jam  her stern down, and she would fill
over the quarter."
Charlie looked very blank indeed at this, which
seemed at one fell blow to render abortive all his
patient toil, and annihilate those sanguine hopes
of proud enjoyment he and John had cherished,
when they should appear in their new craft among
the fleet of dug-outs, then below contempt, and
witness the look of mingled astonishment and
envy on the faces of the other boys, especially as
he began to feel a growing conviction that what
Uncle Isaac had said was but too true.  Still
struggling against the unwelcome truth, he replied, after a long pause, "But a mackerel keeps
on his bottom."
"Yes, because he's alive, and can balance himself by his fins and tail; but he always turns bottom up the minute he is dead."
"I heard Captain Rhines say, one time, that if
a vessel could be modelled like a fish, she would




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.          47
sail. I thought he knew, and so I determined to
try it."
"Captain Rhines does know, but he spoke at
random. He didn't mean exactly like a fish, but
somewhat like them, — sharp, and with a true
taper, having no slack place to drag dead water,
but with proper bearings."
" Then this model, with proper alterations, would
be the thing, after all," said Charlie, a gleam of
hope lighting up his clouded features.
" Sartain, if you should - "
"0, don't tell me, Uncle Isaac, don't! It's no
use for me to try to make a boat if I can't study it
out of my own head. I think I see what you
mean. I thank you very much, and after I try and
see what I can do, I want you to look at it, and see
how I've made out, and tell me how and where to
alter it. I hope you won't think I am a stnck-up,
ungrateful boy, because I don't want you to tell
me."
"Not by any means, Charlie; it is just the disposition I like to see in you. I have no doubt you
will think it all out, and then, my boy, it will be
your own all your life."
"Yes, sir; for, when I went to school, I minded
that the boys who were always running up to the




48  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
master with their slates, or to the bigger boys, to
be shown about their sums, were great dunces,
while the smart boys dug them out themselves."
" I never went to school, but I suppose they forgot how to do them as fast as they were told."
"That was just the way of it."
The next day there came a snow-storm and a
severe gale; the sea roared and flung itself upon
the ramparts of the harbor as though it would force
a passage; but, with roaring fires in the two fireplaces, the inmates of the timber house worked in
their shirt sleeves, and paid very little attention to
the weather.
"It is well you got on when you did, Uncle
Isaac," said Ben; "but you will have to stay, now
you are here, for there will be very little crossing
to the main land for the rest of the winter."
"But what if any of my folks are sick? I told
Hannah to make a signal on the end of the pint if
anything happened."
"In case of necessity, Charlie and I could set
you off in the schooner."
While Uncle Isaac was putting up the mantelpiece in the front room, which had a great deal of
old-fashioned carving about it, he set Atkins and
Charlie at work upon the front stairs; thus Char



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.          49
lie was so constantly and agreeably occupied as to
have but little leisure to spend upon boats. But
when this job was over, which had been most interesting and exciting, he began to give shape to
the ideas that had been germinating in his brain at
intervals during the day, and in his wakeful hours
at night.
IHe wanted some plastic material that would become hard when dry, with which to make his alterations, and determined to use putty. Leaving
that portion of his model which was to be under
water as it was, he made it fuller from that mark,
by sticking on putty, and then, with his knife
and a chisel, paring off or adding to correspond
with his idea of proportions. For a long time did
he puzzle over it, striving in vain to satisfy himself, and several times scraped it all off to the bare
brick. At length he came to a point where he felt
he could accomplish no more.
The next night, at bed-time, with a palpitating
heart, he brought it forward for Uncle Isaac's inspection. After looking at it long and carefully,
he said,"I wish Joe Griffin was here. I ain't much of a
shipwright, though I have worked some in the
yard, and made a good many spars for small ves4




50  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
sels; but he is, and has worked in Portsmouth on
mast ships. But I call that a beautiful model, and
think it shows a first-rate head-piece. She's very
sharp, and will want a good deal of ballast; so
there won't be much room in her as far as depth
is consarned; but then she's so long'twill make
up for it. She's a beauty, and if you can ever
make another on a large scale like her, I'll wager
my life she'll sail. I suppose you'll kind of expect
me to finu some fault, else you'll think I'm  stuffing
you. It strikes me, that in the run, she comes out
from the first shape a thought too quick; that it
would be better if the swell was a leetle more gradual, not sucked out quite so much; but then I
don't want you to alter it for anything I say; but
I'm  going to call Ben and Robert Yelf up to
see it."
" 0, don't, Uncle Isaac! Father knows all about
vessels, and Mr. Yelf is a regular shipwright."
"So much the better; they'll be able to see the
merits of it."
Ben and Yelf made the same criticism as Uncle
Isaac, upon which Charlie amended the fault, till
they expressed themselves satisfied.
"That boy," said Yelf, as they went down stairs,
"if he lives, and gives his mind to it, will make a
first-rate ship-builder."




INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.          51
"Ever since he has been with me," was the
reply, "he has been, at leisure moments, making
boats. I believe he has a fleet, great and small, as
numerous as the whole British navy."
Not the least industrious personage among this
busy crew was Ben Rhines, Jr.
From morning to night, with a devotion worthy
of a better cause, he improved every moment, doing
mischief, till his mother was, at times, almost beside
herself. One moment she would be startled by a
terrific outcry from the buttery.  Ben had tumbled down the buttery stairs; anon from the front
entry he had fallen down the front stairs; then,
from the cellar, he was kicking and screaming
there.
This enterprising youth, bent upon acquiring
knowledge, was determined to explore these new
avenues of information. Twice he set the room in
a blaze, by poking shavings into the fire, and
singed his mischievous head to the scalp, and had
a violent attack of vomiting in consequence of
licking the oil from Uncle Isaac's oil-stone. His
lips were cut, and he was black and blue with
bruises received in his efforts. Despite of all these
mishaps, Ben enjoyed himself hugely; he had
piles and piles of blocks, great long shavings, both




52  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
oak and pine, that came from the panels and the
banisters; he would bury the cat and Sailor all
up in shavings, and then clap his hands, and scream
with delight, to see them dig out; he would also
hide from his mother in them, and lie as still as
though dead; he could pick up plenty of nails on
the floor to drive into his blocks, and didn't scruple
in the least to take them from the nail-box if he
got a chance.  The moment Uncle Isaac's back
was turned, in went his fingers into the putty; he
carried off the chalk-line, to fish down the buttery
stairs, and, when caught, surrendered it only after
a most desperate struggle.
"What a little varmint he is!" said Uncle
Isaac.  "If he don't break his neck, he'll be a
smart one."
"I believe you can't kill him," said Sally, " or he
would have been dead long ago. He's been into
the water and fire, the oxen have trod on him, and
a lobster shut his claws on his foot; why he ain't
dead I don't see."




THE WEST WIND.              53
CHAPTER IV.
THE WEST WIND.
IT was now the middle of March, and the lower
part of the house was finished.
"Ben," said Uncle Isaac, "we want to go off
now. Charlie can finish these chambers as well
as I can."
"I have not seasoned stuff to finish but one
of them now, and hardly that. It's too rough
to go off in your canoe; stay till Saturday afternoon, and part off some bedrooms up stairs with
a rough board partition, and make some rough
doors, so that we can use them for sleeping-rooms,
and then Charlie can finish them next winter, for
he will have' to go to making sugar soon. If
you'll do that I'll set you off in the schooner."
Uncle Isaac parted off the chambers, and they
now had plenty of room. They put the best bed
in one of the front rooms; the family bedroom
was off the kitchen, and there were bedrooms
above.




54  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Charlie was now desirous to complete his boat,
but his mother wanted the flax done out. IHe
therefore concluded to put it off till John came on
to help him make sugar.
When Uncle Isaac reached home, John's school
had been out a week; but the weather was so
rough he could not reach the island; and when he
did arrive, Ben and Charlie were lust finishing up
the flax. The boys now cleared out the camp,
scoured the kettles, put fresh mortar on the arch,
hauled wood, and prepared for sugar-making. They
resolved to tap but few trees at first, in order to
have more leisure to work on their boat. The
greatest mechanical skill was required to shape the
outside. This pertained entirely to Charlie; but
the most laborious portion of the work was the
digging out such an enormous stick, and removing
such a quantity of wood at a disadvantage, as, after
they'had chopped out about a foot of the surface,
it would be difficult to get at, and the work must
be done with adze and chisel, and even bored out
with an auger at the ends. They decided to remove a portion of it before shaping the outside, as
the log would lie steadier. Charlie accordingly
marked out the sheer, then put on plumb-spots,
and hewed the sides and the upper surface fair and
smooth.




THE WEST WIND.             55
He then lined out the shape and breadth of
beam, and made an inside line to rough-cut by,
and at leisure times they chopped out the inside
with the axe, one bringing sap or tending the kettle, while the other worked on the boat.
"John," said Charlie, stopping to wipe the perspiration from his face, "'I'm going to find some
easier way than this to make a boat; it's too much
like work."
"4 There is no other way. I've seen hundreds of
canoes made, and this is the way they always
do.'"
"Don't you remember when we were clearing
land, that we would set our nigger * to burning off
logs, and when it came night, we would find that
he had burned more logs in two than we had cut
with the axe?"
" Yes."'Uncle Isaac told me one night, that the Indians burned out canoes, and I am going to try it."
"I thought they always made them of bark."
"He said they sometimes, especially the Canada
Indians, made them of a log, in places where they
had a regular camping-ground, and didn't want to
carry them."
* Boy Farmers, p. 176.




56  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"You'll burn it all up, and we can never get another such a log."
"You see if I do."
Charlie got a pail of water, and made a little
mop with rags on the end of a stick, then got
some wet clay, and put all around the sides of the
log where he didn't want the fire to come. He
then built a fire of oak chips right in the middle,
and the whole length. The fire burned very freely
at first, for the old log was full of pitch, and soon
began to dry the clay, and burn at the edge; but
Charlie put it out with his mop, and forced it to
burn in the middle.
When the chips had burned out, Charlie took
the adze, and removed about three inches of coal,
and made a new fire.
"Not much hard work about that," said John,
who looked on with great curiosity.
They now went about their sugar, once in a
while stepping to the log to remove the coal, renew the fire, or apply water to prevent its burning
in the wrong direction.
When he had taken as much wood from the
inside as he thought it prudent to remove before
shaping the outside, he began to prepare for that
all-important operation; but as he was afraid the




THE WEST WIND.               57
clear March sun and the north-west winds would
cause her to crack, he built a brush roof over her
before commencing.
Now  came the most difficult portion of the
work, as it must be done almost entirely by the
eye, by looking at the model and then cutting;
but as the faculties in any given direction
strengthen by exercise, and we are unconsciously
prepared by previous effort and application, for
that which follows, thus Charlie experienc d less
difficulty here than he had anticipatei, and at
length succeeded in making it resemble the model,
in Ben's opinion, as nearly as one thing. could another. Now their efforts were directed to finish
the inside; and, having used the fire as long as
they thought prudent, they resorted to other tools,
as they wished so to dig her out as to have the
utmost room inside, and to make her as light as
possible. The risk was in striking through by
some inadvertent blow. Though it may seem
strange to those not versed in such things, yet
Charlie could give a very near guess at the thickness by pressing the points of his fingers on each
side, and when he was in doubt, he bored a hole
through with a gimlet, and then plugged it up.
They at length left her a scant inch in thickness,




58  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
except on the bottom and at the stern and bow.
There she was so sharp that the wood for a long
distance was cut directly across the grain.
"I wish," said Charlie, "I had shaped the outside before digging her out at all."
"Why so?" said John.
"Because, in that case, I could have left more
thickness at the bow; but I couldn't leave it outside and follow the model."
In order to avoid taking the keel out of the log,
and to have all the depth possible, they put on a
false keel of oak; as the edge was too thin to put
on row-locks, they fastened cleats on the inside,
and put flat thole-pins in between them and the
side, which looked neat, and were strong enough
for so light, easy-going a craft, that was intended
for sailing rather than carrying; they also put on
a cut-water, with a billet-head scroll-shaped, and
with mouldings on the edges.
As it was evident she would require a good deal
of ballast, to enable her to bear sail, they laid a
platform forward and aft, raised but a very little
from the bottom, merely enough to make a level
to step or stand on; but amidships they left it
higher, to give room for ballast.
Their intention was, at some future time, to put




THE WEST WIND.             59
in head and stern-boards, or, in other words, a
little deck forward and aft, with room beneath to
put lines, luncheon, and powder, when they went
on fishing or sailing excursions; but they were too
anxious to see her afloat to stop for that now.
They therefore primed her over with lead color, to
keep her from cracking, and the very moment she
was dry, put her in the water.
Never were boys in a state of greater excitement than they, when, upon launching her into
the water, with a hearty shove and hurrah, she
went clear across the harbor, and landed on the
Great Bull. They got into the Twilight, and
brought her back, and found she sat as light as
a cork upon the water, on an even keel, and was
much stiffer than they expected to find her. She
was eighteen feet long, and four feet in width,
eighteen inches deep.
Having persuaded Sally to get in and sit down
on the bottom, -for as yet they had no seats, -
they rowed her around the harbor.
"Now we can go to Indian camp ground, or
where we are a mind to," said Charlie.
"Yes," replied John, "we can go to Boston;
and if we want to go anywhere, and the wind is
ahead, we can beat: how I do want to get sail on
her!"




60  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM: ISLAND.
There was still much to be done - a rudder
and tiller, bowsprit, thwarts for the masts, and
masts' sprits, a boom and sails to make. They did
not, however, neglect their work; but now that
they had succeeded in their purpose, and the
agony was over, though still very anxious to finish
and get her under sail, they tapped more trees, and
only worked on her in such intervals as their work
afforded. In these intervals Charlie made the rudder, and tiller, and thwarts for the masts.
We are sorry to say that he now manifested
something like conceit, which, being a development so strange in him, and so different from the
natural modesty of his disposition, can only be
accounted for by supposing that uniform success
had somewhat turned his head, and produced temporary hallucination.
From  the time he made his own axe handle,
when he first came on the island, till now, he had
always succeeded in whatever he undertook, and
been praised and petted; and even his well-balanced faculties and native modesty were not
entirely unaffected by such powerfill influences.
Ben advised him  to secure the mast thwarts
with knees, as is always done in boats, to put a
breast-hook in the bow, and two knees in the stern,




THE WEST WIND.               61
to strengthen her, as she was dug out so thin, and
the wood forward and aft cut so much across the
grain; but, flushed with success, Charlie thought
he knew as much about boat-building as anybody,
and, for the first time in his life, neglected his
father's counsel. HIe thought knees would look
clumsy, and that he could fasten the thwarts with
cleats of oak, and make them look neater; and thus
he did. They were now brought to a stand for
lack of material, cloth for sails, rudder-irons, and
spars.
Elm Island, although it could furnish masts in
abundance for ships of the line, produced none of
those straight, slim, spruce poles, that are suitable
for boat spars. It was very much to the credit of
the boys, that, although aching to see the boat
under sail, and well aware that Ben would not
hesitate a moment, if requested, to let them leave
their work and go after the necessary articles, they
determined to postpone the completion of her till
the sugar season was over.  Meanwhile, they
painted her, and, after the paint was dry, rowed off
in the bay: they also put the Twilight's sail in her;
and, though it was not half large enough, and they
were obliged to steer with an oar, they could see
that she would come up to the wind, and was an




62  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
entirely different affair from the Twilight, promising great things.
They hugged themselves while witnessing and
admiring her performance, saying to each other,"Won't she go through the water when she
gets her own sails, spars, and a rudder!"
It must be confessed, Charlie was not at all sorry
to see the flow of sap diminished; and no sooner
was the last kettle full boiled, than off they started
for the main land.
Immediately on landing, Charlie bent his steps
towards Uncle Isaac's, on whose land was a second
growth of spruce, amongst which were straight
poles in abundance.
John, after bolting a hasty meal, hurried to
Peter Brock's shop; there, with some assistance
from Peter, he made the rudder-irons, a gooseneck for the main-boom, another for the heel of
the bowsprit, which was made to unship, a clasp
to confine it to the stem, and the necessary
staples.
When Charlie returned the next night with his
spars, they procured the cloth for the sails, and
vent back to the island.
Ben cut and made the sails; and, in order that
everything  might be in keeping, pointed and




THE WEST WIND.              63
grafted the ends of the fore, main, and jib-sheets,
and also made a very neat fisherman's anchor; but
he persisted in making the sails much smaller than
suited their notions.
They had some large, flat pieces of iron that
came from the wreck that drove ashore on the
island the year before; these they put in the bottom for ballast, and upon them, in order to make
her as stiff as possible, some heavy flint stones,
worn smooth by the surf, which they had picked
up on the Great Bull.
Until this moment they had been unable to decide upon a name, but now concluded to call her
the "West Wind."
They put the finishing touch to their work
about three o'clock in the afternoon, and, with a
moderate south-west wind, made sail, and stood
out to sea, close-hauled.
All their hopes were now more than realized;
loud and repeated were their expressions of delight
as they saw how near she would lie to the wind,
and how well she worked. The moment the helm
was put down, she came rapidly up to the wind,
the foresail gave one slat, and she was about; then
they tried her under foresail alone, and found she
went about easily, requiring no help.




64  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Isn't she splendid?" asked John; "and ain't
you glad we built her?"
"Reckon I am: what will Fred say when he
sees her? and won't we three have some nice times
in her?"'"It was a good thing for us, Charlie, that we
had Ben to cut the sails and tell us where to put
the masts."
They avoided the main land, as they did not wish
to attract notice till they were thoroughly used to
handling her, and knew her trim; and, after sailing a while, hauled down the jib, kept away, and
went back "wing and wing."
"Some time," said Charlie, " we'll go down among
the canoes on the fishing-ground, and when the
fishermen are tugging away at their oars with a
head wind, go spanking by them, the spray flying
right in the wind's eye."
At length, feeling that they knew how to sail,
they determined to go over to the mill and exhibit her.
Notwithstanding their efforts to keep it secret,
the report of their proceedings had gone round
among the young folks. Some boy saw John at
work upon the rudder-irons in Peter's shop, though
he plunged his work into the forge trough the moment he saw that he was observed.




THE WEST WIND.             65
Little Bob Smullen also saw Charlie hauling
down the spars with Isaac's oxen, and when he
asked Charlie what they were for, he told him, " To
make little boys ask questions."
The wind came fresh off the land, which suited
their purpose, as they wished to sail along shore on
a wind, and desired to display the perfections
of their boat to the greatest advantage, and above
all show her superiority to the canoes, which could
only go before the wind, or a little quartering.
The wind was not only fresh, but blew in flaws;
and as they could not think, upon such an occasion,
of carrying anything less than whole sail, they put
in additional ballast, and took a barrel of sap sugar,
which Fred was to sell for them, and five bushels
of corn, to be ground at the mill.
They were to spend the night at Captain
Rhines's, intending in the morning to go down to
Uncle Isaac's point and invite him to take a sail
with them. Charlie considered that the best part
of the affair.
They beat over in fine style, fetching far to the
windward of the mill, in order to have opportunity
to keep away a little and run the shore down,
intending to run by the wharf, and then tack and
beat back in sight of whoever might be there.
5




66  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
When about half a mile from the shore, they were
espied by little Tom Pratt, who was fishing from
the wharf. He had heard the talk among the big
boys, and, rushing into the mill, he bawled out,
"It's coming! it's coming! I seed it! that thing
from Elm Island."
Out ran Fred, Henry Griffin, Sam iladlock, and
Joe Merrithew. In a few moments another company came from the store and the blacksmith's
shop, among whom were Captain Rhines, Yelf,
and Flour.
John was steering, and every few moments a
half bucket of salt water would strike in the side
of his neek and run out at the knees of his
breeches, while Charlie baled it out as fast as
it came in.
"Only look, Charlie! see what a crowd there is
on the wharf! I see father and Flour, and there's
old Uncle Jonathan Smullen, with his cane."
"I see Fred and Hen Griffin," said Charlie:
"when we get a little nearer, I mean to hail'em."
"Slack the fore and jib sheets a little, Charlie.
I'm going to keep her away and run down by the
wharf."
As they ran along seven or eight hundred yards
from the wharf, Charlie, standing up to windward,




THE WEST WIND.               67
waved his cap to Fred, and cheered. It was instantly returned by the whole crowd.
At that moment a hard flaw, striking over the
high land, heeled her almost to upsetting; and as
she rose again, she split in two, from stem to stern.
Charlie, who was just waving his hat for a second
cheer, went head foremost into the water. One
half the boat, to which were attached the masts,
bowsprit, and rudder, fell over to leeward; the
cable, which was fastened into a thole-pin hole,
running out, anchored that part, while the other
half drifted off before the wind towards Elm
Island.
John and Charlie clung to the half that was left,
while the barrel of sugar, the corn, both their guns,
powder and shot, went to the bottom.
It was but a few moments before Captain Rhines,
with Flour and Fred Williams, came in a canoe,
and took them off.
Every one felt sorry for the mishap, and Fred
felt so bad that he cried.
It was the first boat that had ever been made
or owned in the place, or even seen there, except
once in a great while, when a whalernman or some
large vessel came in for water, or lost their way;
the inhabitants all using canoes, as did also the
fishermen and coasters.




68  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
As the anchor held one half the boat, it furnished
a mark to tell where the contents lay; and while
Fred and Henry Griffin were towing back the
other half, the rest grappled for and brought up
the corn, guns, and sugar, not much of which was
dissolved.
It was a bitter disappointment to Charlie and
John, but they bore it manfully, and went up to
Captain Rhines's to put on dry clothes and spend
the night, Fred walking along with them, striving
to administer consolation.
" I wouldn't feel so bad about it, Charlie," said
he; "we've got the other half; why couldn't you
fasten them together again?"
"So you could, Charlie," said John, "and she
would be as good as ever."
"But what would she look like?  No, I never
want to touch her again; let her go; but I know
one thing, that is, if I live long enough, I'll build a
boat that will sail as well as she did, and not split
in two either."
Uncle Isaac, hearing of the shipwreck, came in
to Captain Rhines's in the evening to see and
comfort the boys.
"It's not altogether the loss of the boat makes
me feel so bad, Uncle Isaac," said Charlie.




THE: WEST- WIND.           69
"I'm sure I don't see what else you have to feel
bad about."
"It's because father told me to fasten her
together with knees, and put a hook in the eyes
of her; but I thought I knew so much, I wouldn't
do it. I wanted her to look neat; and see how she
looks now! I never was above taking advice before, and hope I never shall be again."
Notwithstanding Charlie's resolution never to
touch the boat again, he changed his mind after
sleeping upon it.
The two boys now reluctantly separated, as it
was time for John to go to his trade. Fred and
Henry set Charlie on to the island, putting the
masts, sails, &c., in their canoe, and towing the two
halves. Ben never said to Charlie, "I told you
so," but did all he could to cheer him up, and told
him he had made a splendid boat; that he watched
them till they were half way over, and that she
sailed and worked as well as any Vineyard Sound
boat (and they were called the fastest) he ever
saw. The boys put the pieces of the boat and the
spars in the sugar camp, and then JIenry and Fred
returned.
Charlie seemed very cheerful and happy while
the boys were there; but when they were gone, he




70  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
put his head in his mother's lap, and fairly broke
down. Sally was silent for some time: at length
she said, —
"'Charlie, I think your goose wants to set. I
should have set her while you was gone, but the
gander is so cross, I was afraid of him."
Charlie started up in an instant. This was a
tame goose, that had mated with a wild gander
they had wounded and caught, and Charlie was
exceedingly anxious to raise some goslings, and
instantly put the eggs unuder the goose.
The wild ganders have horny excrescences on
the joint of their wings, resembling a rooster's spur,
with which they strike a very severe blow, and are
extremely bold and savage when the geese are
sitting. They seize their antagonist with their
bills, then strike them with both wings, and it
is no child's play to enter into a contest with
them.




RAPS AND MISHAPS.            71
CHAPTER V.
FLAPS AND MISHAPS.
IT is frequently the case that trials, which are
very hard to bear at the time, prove, in the end, to
be the source of great and permanent benefit. The
sequel will show that the wreck of the West
Wind, which was so galling to Charlie and John
at the moment, was, in the result, to exert a favorable influence upon their whole lives.
The spring was now well advanced, and there
were so many things to occupy Charlie's attention
that boat-building was altogether out of the question. Indeed, for a time, he felt very little inclination to meddle with it, and thought he never
should again. There were sea-fowl to shoot, and
Charlie had now become as fond of gunning as
John. The currant bushes were beginning to
start, the buds on the apple, pear, and cherry trees
in the garden, whose development he watched as
a cat would a mouse, were beginning to swell, and
early peas and potatoes were to be planted. The




72  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
robins also returned, and began to repair their last
-year's nests, bringing another pair with them, —
their progeny of the previous summer.
Charlie was hoping and expecting that the swallows, who came in such numbers to look at the
island and the barn the summer before, would again
make their appearance; but, notwithstanding all
these sources of interest and occupation, and
though he felt at the time of his misfortune that
it would be a long time, if ever, before he should
again think of undertaking boat-building, it was
not a fortnight before he found his thoughts running in the accustomed channel, and, as he tugged
at the oars, pulling the Twilight against the
wind, he could but think how much easier and
pleasanter would have been the task of steering
the West Wind over the billows; and he actually
found himself, one day, in the sugar camp, looking
at the pieces of the wreck, and considering how
they might be put together; but several other
subjects of absorbing interest now presented
themselves in rapid succession, which effectually
prevented his cogitations from taking any practical shape.
A baby, whose presence well nigh reconciled
Charlie to the loss of the boat, made its appear



HAPS AND MISHAPS.           73
ance. He was exceedingly fond of the little ones,
and was looking forward to the time when he
could have the baby out doors with him.
Mrs. Hadlock had come over to stay a while, and
one day undertook to put the baby in the cradle;
but little Ben stoutly resisted this infringement on
his rights. He fought and screamed, declaring, as
plainly as gestures and attempts at language could,
that the cradle was his; that he had not done with
it, and would not give it up. In this emergency,
Charlie bethought himself of the willow rods (sallies), which the boys had helped him peel the
spring before, and determined to make the baby
a cradle, which should altogether eclipse that of
Sam Atkins. The rods being thoroughly dry, he
soaked them in water, when they became tough
and pliant. He stained part of them with the
bright colors he had procured in Boston the year
before, some red, others blue and green. He then
wove his cradle, putting an ornamental fringe
round the rim, and also a canopy over it. The
bottom was of pine, but he made the rockers of
mahogany that Joe Griffin had given him. When
the willow was first peeled, it was white as snow,
but by lying had acquired a yellowish tinge, and
was somewhat soiled in working. Charlie there



74  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
fore put it under an empty hogshead, and smoked
it with brimstone, which removed all the yellow
tinge, and the soil received from the hands, making
it as white as at first. When finished, it excited
the admiration of the household, none of whom,
except Ben, had ever seen any willow-work before.
"Well, Charlie," said Mrs. Hadlock, " that beats
the Indians, out and out."
" It will last a great deal longer than their
work," said he; "but I don't think I could ever
make their porcupine-work."
Ben, Jr., appreciated the new cradle as highly
as the rest, instantly clambered in, and laid claim
to it, and was so outrageous, wishing to appropriate both, though he could use but one at a
time, that his father gave him a sound whipping.
He fled to Charlie for consolation, who, to give
satisfaction all round, made him a willow chair,
and dyed it all the colors of the rainbow.
Charlie now prepared to give a higher exhibition
of his skill. He selected some of the best willows
of small size, and made several beautiful workbaskets, of various sizes and colors. He then took
some of the longest rods, of the straightest grain,
and with his knife split the butt in four pieces, two
or three inches in length; then took a piece of




HAPS AND MISHAPS.            75
hard wood (granadilla), made sharp at one end,
and with four scores in it; inserting the point in
the split, he put the other end against his breast,
and pushed it through the whole length of the rod,
thus dividing it into four equal parts. He then
put the quarters on his thigh, and with his knife
shaved off the heart-wood, leaving the outside sap
reduced to a thin, tough shaving, like cloth. This
he made up into skeins, and kept it to wind the
rims and handles of his baskets. He told them
that a regular workman had a piece of bone or
ivory to split the rod with, and an instrument
much like a spoke-shave to shave it to a ribbon,
but he made a piece of wood and a knife answer
his purpose.
Charlie's West India wood was constantly coming into use, for one thing or another, and Joe
Griffin could not have given him a more acceptable
or useful present.
He also used his skeins of willow for winding
the legs of the three chairs he made, one for his
mother, one for Hannah Murch, and one for Mrs.
Hadlock. The legs were made of stout willow,
and wound with these bands.
He presented work-baskets to his mother, Mrs.
Rhines, and her daughters, and Aunt Molly Bra



76  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
dish, and expressed his determination to make some
baskets the next winter to send over to the mill,
that people might see them.
What was his delight on going out one night,
after supper, to get some willows he had put to
soak in the brook, to see a company of swallows
he disturbed fly off in the direction of the barn,
with their bills full of clay! Following them, he
saw, with great joy, some of them fly into the
holes he had cut in the barn, while others deposited their burdens beneath the eaves outside.
By that he knew that two kinds of swallows
had come to take up their abode, and were building
their nests - barn-swallows and eave-swallows.
He was not long in getting to the house with
the glad tidings, which delighted his mother as
much as himself.
" I think," she said, " eave-swallows are the prettiest things in the world, they look so cunning
sticking their heads out of a little round hole in
their nest!"
"Yes, mother, and I've seen them two stories on
Captain Rhines's barn- one nest right over the
other."
It seemed as if a kind Providence had determined to remunerate Charlie for his disappoint



HAPS AND MISHAPS.           77
ment in respect to the boat. He kept his goose,
with her goslings, in a large pen near the barn,
while the wild gander was let out every day to go
where he liked. The great body of wild geese
were now gone; but a few stragglers from broken
flocks still remained, and were not considered worth
the attention of gunners.
A brush fence ran across the island behind the
barn, dividing the field from the pasture. Great
was Charlie's surprise, when coming one day to
dinner, he saw the gander in conversation with a
wild goose through the fence. He could not fly
over the fence, as one wing was mutilated, therefore was trying to persuade the goose to fly over to
him. The goose, on the other hand, being lonely,
- the rest of the flock probably having been shot,
— was desirous of company, but afraid to venture.
The gander would walk along one side of the
fence, and the goose the other, a little ways, and
then stop and talk the matter over. Charlie ran
and made a hole in the fence, right abreast the
back barn doors, while they were down under the
hill out of sight, and opened the barn doors that
led into the floor, then hid himself and watched
them. They continued walking along till they
found the gap, when the gander instantly went




78  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
through, and joined the goose, making the most
strenuous efforts to entice her to follow him
~through tile hole, and finally succeeded; he
evidently wished to coax her to the barn, but
the goose held off; she would venture a little way,
and then go back, her head erect, turning in every
direction, and her eyes flashing like balls of fire.
It seemed as if the gander would fail in his efforts,
and she appeared about to rise and fly away.
At this juncture, Charlie, in his concealment,
flung some corn around the barn door: the gander
now redoubled his efforts; he would run ahead,
pick up some corn, then run back and tell her how
good it -was. The goose, evidently hungry, now
approached slowly, and began to pick the corn, a
train of it extending into the floor; Charlie was so
excited he could hear his heart beat. IIe now
crawled out of the barn, and concealed himself outside, and the goose, following up the scattered
kernels, entered the floor, when Charlie slammed
the door to. He could hardly believe that he
had a veritable wild goose unhurt; he flew into the
house, where they were all through dinner, and
replied to his nmother's question, of where he had
been, by taking her and Ben by the hand and
dragging them to the barn, where they found the




HAPS AND MISHAPS.             79
wild goose on the collar beam, and the gander on
the floor, vainly striving to entice her down.
After being chased from beam to beam, she buried
herself in the hay, when they caught her and
clipped her wings.
The flax being done out, Sally, with a good
smart girl to help her (Sally MSerrithew), had linen
yarn to bleach to her heart's content. One forenoon, about eleven o'clock, Ben and Charlie were
in the field; Sally had spread some linen yarn on
the grass to whiten, and gone in to get dinner.
All at once a terrible outcry arose from the house;
Sally was screaming, "Ben! Ben! get the gun;"
the baby was bawling for dear life, and Sailor
barking in concert.
The cause of the outcry was soon manifest. A
large fish-hawk was seen sailing along in the direction of the eastern point, with two skeins of Sally's
yarn in his claws, screaming with delight at the
richness of his prize.
"Why don't you fire, Ben?" screamed Sally.
"It's no use," said Ben; "he's out of range."
"Well, get the axe and cut the tree down this
minute."
"I will, mother," said Charlie, running to the
wood-pile for the axe.




80 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
" Stop till after dinner," said Ben, who had not
the most distant idea of cutting the tree down;
however, he felt very sorry for Sally, and like a
prudent general, permitted her feelings to exhaust
themselves. "If I've got to cut that great pine
down this warm day, I think I must have a cup
of tea." He well knew the soothing effect of a cup
of tea.
When they were seated at table, he said, —
"What a nice dinner this is, Sally! you do make
the best bread, and such nice butter! " Not a word
about the fish-hawk. But as dinner was most over,
Ben began to unfold his purpose. "Sally," said
he, " do you love that little creature?" pointing to
the baby.
"How can you ask such a question?"
"Haven't you taken a great deal of comfort in
making his little dresses? and wouldn't you feel bad
if some one should come and tear down this house,
break the furniture, and destroy all that we've
worked, scrubbed, and contrived so long to collect
around us, for these little ones? "
" Why, Ben, how you talk! Of course I should.
But what makes you talk so? Who's going to hurt
uS? "
"Nobody, I hope; but suppose somebody had




HAPS AND MISHAPS.            81
taken some little thing from us, - an axe, a shovel,
or a milk pan, - would you want their house torn
down over their heads for it?"
"No; I'd say the worst is their own.":'
"But you want me to cut down that tree, and
break that poor fish-hawk's nest to pieces, that she
has built stick by stick, lugging them miles through
the air in her claws, just because she took two
skeins of yarn to line her nest with, it's so much
better than eel-grass, and which we shall hardly
miss; besides, she don't know any better than to
take what she wants, wherever she can find it."
At this appeal Sally cast down her eyes and
colored; at length she said," You are right, Ben, I know; but it was so provoking, after I had worked so hard to spin and
scour that yarn, the first, too, that we have ever
had, of our own raising, to see it going off in the
claws of a fish-hawk! "
"Well," continued Ben, "this fish-hawk came
and built here the first spring we lived here, and
kind of put herself under our protection, building
her nest so near the house, where we pass under
it every day; they are harmless creatures, and
never pull up corn, like the crows or blue jays; nor
carry off lambs, like the eagles; nor pick out their
6




82  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
eyes when they get mired or cast, as the ravens do.
There's a noble disposition in a fish-hawk: they are
industrious, work hard for a living, and maintain
their families by their own labor; they won't pick
up a dead fish, or eel, or feed on a dead horse or
cow, like an eagle or carrion crow, but will have a
live fish, that they have taken fiesh from the sea;
they won't be beholden to chance, nor anybody, for
their living, but earn it, as every honest person
should, in the sweat of their face. Once when I
was a boy, just for fun, I put the eggs of two fishhawk's nests into one.  I was over here with
father after they were all hatched out, and there
was the nest, heaping full, the little hawks screaming, and the old ones springing to it, working like
good ones to bring up such a family. There were
some great lazy eagles sitting in the tops of the
pines, and every once in the while, when the
hawks would get a good large flounder, they would
give chase and take it away from them. 0, how
mad I was! Two or three times I got up my gun to
shoot; but father wouldn't let me, because lhe said
that to shoot an eagle was bad luck."  As he conlcluded, he looked at his watch, and said, "We've
been only an hour and a half at dinner; and
what of it?" he continued, putting his great brawny




HAPS AND MISHAPS.             83
arms on the table, that creaked under the weight.
" This is the comfort of the farmer's life - he is his
own employer. Now, if I was a sailor, the mate
would come forward, and sing out,'Turn to there,
men;' if I was a fisherman, and the fish didn't bite,
there'd be my expenses going on; if I was a shipmaster, I must hurry into port, and then hurry just
as fast out, and if I made a bad voyage or a long
passage, the owners would look sour; but now, if I
am sick, or happen to feel lazy, the grain will grow,
the cows give milk, and the sheep make wool, all
the samle."
It is evident Ben felt remarkably happy about
this time, one reason of which was, that he had
determined to put Joe Griffin in the Perseverance,
who was going to fish a short distance from the
shore. Henry Griffin and Robert Yelf were going
with him, and Uncle Isaac before and after haying: thus Ben was going to have a good time
farming  the work he liked best.
"Sally," said Mrs. Hadlock, "I wouldn't worry
about the yarn; it's nothing to what old Aunt
Betty Prindle met with."
" What was that, mother? "
"She had a shawl that had been her grandmother's; a beautiful one it was; came from foreign




84 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
parts, and cost a sight in its day; but having been
worn for so many years, you know, it would
naturally get soiled. She had been wanting to
wash it for a great many years, had often threatened to, and indeed more than once set a time to
do it; but when the time came her heart failed her;
even after the water was hot, she was afraid to put
it into the tub, for fear it would fade. I think she
would have done it once, but her darter Patience,
who knew it would fall to her when the old lady
was done with it, discouraged her. At last, one
spring, just about this time of year (she lived, you
know, with her son Richard), she determined that,
come what might, she would wash it. One morning she said to her granddarter,' Lois Ann Prindle,
do you go straight down to Aunt Olive Cobb's and
Peggy Sylvester's, over to Mrs. Joe Ransom's, and
the widder Tucker's, give my compliments, and ask
them to come over and take a cup of tea (green tea,
mind) with me this afternoon.' They all came;
and when tea was over, she said,'You know,
neighbors, I am an old parson, and can't, in the
course of natur, expect to live many years. I
do want to see this shawl washed before I'm taken
away; but our Patience has always discouraged
me; but she's gone to Cape Porpoise to stay a




HAPS AND MISHAPS.             85
month, and I'm determined to have it in the tub
before she comes back; that is, if you think it will
do; and I want you to pass your judgment on't."'
"The old lady meant to have plenty of advice,"
said Sally.
"That was so that Patience couldn't put all the
blame on her, in case it faded," replied Ben.
"The shawl was brought out," said Mrs. Hadlock, " and laid across their knees, when judgment
was passed on it; every one but the widow
Tucker thought it would wash, and if it was their
shawl, they should wash it; but she said,'she
knew it wouldn't wash, for the Wildridge family,
in old York, had jest such a shawl, and they
washed it, and it faded dreadfully; but there,'
said she, looking out of the window,' comes black
Luce, Flour's wife; she is a great washer and
ironer, and knows more about it than all of us.'
Luce was called in, and said,' if they put a beef's
gall in the water, it would set the color, and it
wouldn't fade a mite.''Then I'll wash it, I declare to man I will, for Enoch Paine's going to kill
an ox this week, and our Patience won't be home
till long arter that.'
"Aunt Betty procured her beef's gall, got her
water hot, and put it in.




86 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"'Here it goes,' said she,'hit or miss,' dropping
the shawl into the tub. She washed and spread it
out on the grass to dry, and every two or three
minutes ran out to look at it. At length it began
to dry at the edges, and she saw it wasn't going to
fade one mite. Down went her flatirons to the
fire.'Lois Ann, run right down to the neighbors
you went to before, tell them the shawl is drying
beautifully. I am going to iron it, and want them
to come up and take tea to-night, and see it. Tell
Luce to come, too, and arter we've done, she shall
have as good a cup of green tea as ever she had in
her life."'
"She was a good old soul," said Ben; "she
didn't forget old Luce."
"Not she; but, as I was saying, she got her table
out, and irons hot; but just as she opened the
door to bring in the shawl, she saw a fish-hawk
rising from the ground with it in his claws. Almost beside herself, she screamed for Richard, who
came running from the field; but long enough
before he could load the gun, the hawk was out
of sight behind a high hill back of the house; and
when I heard Sally screaming for Ben, it brought
it right up."
" Why couldn't they have followed, seen where




HAPS AND M1ISHAPS.           87
he went to, and cut the tree down?" asked
Charlie.
"Because, child, it was all thick woods. You
couldn't see, only right up in the air, without
climbing a tall tree, and before they could do that
he was out of sight."
"Did the women come?"
"Yes; but instead of rejoicing with the poor old
lady, they did their best to console her. She
didn't live but a week after that. Some thought
the loss of the shawl, and thinking what Patience
would say when she came, shortened her days;
but I don't. She was very old, and had been very
feeble all the winter before."
"Did they ever find it?"
"Yes; some men, who were clearing land two
miles off, cut down a tree, the next summer, that
had a fish-hawk's nest on it; and there was the
shawl, all rotten and covered with the lice that are
always on young fish-hawks."
" The hawk is welcome to the yarn, mother."
" That's right, Sally; that is spoken like a child
of mine, and a good, thoughtful girl. If the Lord
had told you, two years ago, that he would give
you all he has sent you in that time, by the way
of the Ark, if you would give a couple of skeins




88  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
of yarn to a fish-hawk, you would have been very
glad to have done it. These are all his creatures,
and he careth for them, and feeds them all. The
robins, in their nests, open their little mouths for
God to feed them. The Scripture says,' He
feedeth the ravens, and not even a sparrow is
forgotten before God."'




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 89
CHAPTER VI.
PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER.
DURING the last year Sally had woven cloth for
curtains to her best bed, and also for the windows
of the rooms, when they should be finished; but for
the last two or three weeks she and Sally Merrithew had been very busily employed bleaching the
linen, making the curtains, and scouring the woodwork, which had been soiled in the putting up. It
was not the fashion to paint in those days —
everything was scoured.
The cause of this extraordinary industry was at
length revealed by Sally herself, who said to Ben,
"Now that the house is done, I've got good help,
the baby is well, and mother is here, I think we
ought to have a meeting. I'm afraid we shall get
to be just like the heathen, for we can't get to
meeting but once or twice in the winter, and not a
great deal in the summer. I want Parson Goodhue to come on to the island, preach a lecture, and
make us a real good visit. He's our old minister




90  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
that we have known and loved ever since we were
children, and we haven't seen him since we were
married, except in the pulpit."
" Nothing would suit me better, and I think we'd
better have it right off, before Joe goes away with
the schooner; then we can bring him on and take.
him back in her, while she's sweet and clean."
"Yes, and we can have Joe and Henry Griffin to
sing, and Uncle Isaac to lift the tune. Your father
will comle, and bring the girls. They are first-rate
singers; so is Fred Williams; and we can have
as good singing as they do in the meeting-house
on Lord's day."
"I'll go off to-night, and if he can come, we'll
have the meeting next week."
Notwithstanding Ben differed so much from the
minister in respect to temperance, it produced not
the least alienation of feeling. Ben, though very
firm in his opinions, had not a particle of bitterness
in his composition. On the other hand, he was
much attached to the pastor, who was a very devoted man, and greatly beloved and respected by
his people, although he thought him in an error
respecting that matter, still his ideas were in
harmony with the almost universal sentiments and
practice of the age in which he lived. He was a




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 91
good man, by no means a free liver, and sought
what he supposed to be the good of his people
with all his heart. Wedded to this pernicious
habit by early usage, and the example of those he
had been accustomed to revere as models of all
that was great and good, he failed to perceive its
fatal tendency, although the proofs were daily accumnulating before his eyes, and also that the distinction between the use and abuse, which he
and Captain Rhines strongly insisted upon, was, in
the great majority of cases, a distinction without a
difference.
It was determined, in family conclave, that the
lecture should be at four o'clock, after which all
were to sit down to a meat supper, the meats having been roasted beforehand, and served up cold,
with hot tea and coffee.
"This will be the first time Mr. Goodhue was
ever here, Sally," said Ben, "and the first time, I
expect, in his life, that he was ever invited anywhere to eat and not offered spirit. We've got
turkeys, ducks, and chickens, enough of everything.
We'll let him and all the rest know that it is not
for the sake of saving that we don't put spirit on
the table; and you know what Bradish set out to
say at the husking, if Joe Griffin hadn't knocked
the wind out of him."




92  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Seats were made in the parlor, kitchen, and
porch for the audience; but the spare room, which
was most elaborately finished, where Uncle Isaac
had displayed his utmost skill in carved and panelwork, and in which was the buffet, was carefully
prepared for the reception of the minister. There
were curtains to the best bed and windows, which
Sally had woven and bleached as- white as snow;
the bed-ticks were also woven by her, and filled
with the feathers of wild geese she had picked
herself. The sheets and pillow-cases were scented
with orange balm. On the mantel-piece were some
beautiful shells and coral, which Ben had brought
home from sea; the secretary, also, which his
father had given him, inlaid with various kinds of
wood, was in this room. As to the remaining furniture, it was of the homeliest kind, as Ben had not
purchased any since his means had increased. The
looking-glass was six inches by eight in size, and
the chairs were bottomed with ash splints. In
those old times, instead of painting or carpeting
floors, they kept them white by scouring and covering with sand. It was the custom of housewives, on important occasions, to cover the floor
with sand, and then, with the point of a hemlock
broom, make marks in the sand resembling the




PAR-SON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 93
backbone of a herring. Sometimes they deposited
the sand in little heaps, like pepper on the surface
of a ham, and representing various figures; but
Sally Merrithew  went far beyond this.  She
covered the floor of the minister's room with the
finest of sand, and then, with her fingers, made the
exact impress of a little child's naked foot in dif:
ferent places; also the representation of star-fish,
diamonds, horses, oxen, and various other things.
This was a vast deal of work to bestow upon a
thing that was destroyed the moment you stepped
on it; but it looked very pretty when you first
opened the door, and that was enough for Sally.
If Parson Goodhue only looked at it once, she was
more than satisfied.
Clocks were not common then, and time was
kept by hour and minute glasses; and there would
not have been any other time-keeper on Elm Island
had not Ben's profession as a sailor put him in the
way of having a watch; but whenever he took his
watch with him, Sally resorted to the hour glass,
and the sun-mark in the window.
When the day arrived, Ben and Charlie went
over in the Perseverance, as she was now ready for
sea, and returned with Joe and his crew, Captain
Rhines and his girls, Uncle Isaac, the Hadlocks,




94  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
and others, among whom  was Fred Williams.
The most important personage of all was Parson
Goodhue. The saucy little craft, her sails limed
and snow-white, her decks white as a holy-stone
and sand could make them, her masts scraped and
slushed, with a little yellow ochre in the grease,
her hull, mastheads, and spars gayly painted, and
rigging fresh tarred, seemed, as she flung the foam
from  her bows and shot into the little harbor,
proud of her burden.
The parson was brought ashore from the vessel
in the large canoe; and as the beach was wet, Ben
took him in his arms and set him down on the
grass ground, without ruffling a feather; here he
was met and welcomed by Sally.
Our young readers might be interested if we
should describe the dress of this good man, whose
arrival had excited so much interest, and caused
such a commotion, on -Elm Island; it was the
usual dress of the ministers of that day, and quite
remarkable.
A dark-blue broadcloth coat of the finest materi.ql, with a broad back, wide skirts, and a very
long waist. It reached below the knees, the front
edges on both sides being cut to the segment of a
circle, from the end of the collar to the bottom of




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 95
the skirts, the two edges just meeting in the middle over the abdomen, there fastened, when fastened at all, with a single hook and eye; the collar
was quite wide, and laid over flat on the back;
there was one row of black enamelled buttons in
front, about the size of an old-fashioned Spanish
milled dollar, with button holes to correspond to
the size of the buttons, but which were never used,
as the coat was never fastened except by the single
hook and eye. The vest was of black kerseymere,
reaching some six inches or more below the hips,
with broad and deep pocket-flaps on each side,
covering a capacious pocket.  It was buttoned
from the hips, close to the throat, with enamelled
buttons as large as an English shilling, and finished
round the neck with a narrow collar, three fourths
of an inch wide. The lower corners of the vest
were rounded off, so as always to hang open. To
complete the dress, was a pair of dark-blue small
clothes, buttoned tight around the body above the
hips, and worn without suspenders, as they had
not then been invented. A pair of heavy black
silk stockings reached above the knee, under the
small clothes, which were buttoned down close
over the stockings below the knee, and there fastened by silver buckles. On his feet he wore a pair




96  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
of round-toed shoes with short quarters, and fastened by a pair of large silver buckles that covered
the whole of the instep. On his head he wore a
large full-bottomed wig of silvery whiteness, fitting
close to the head, the hair from the whole head
being shaved twice a week, to permit the wig to
fit close to the head. The back part of this wig,
on the "bottom," as it was technically called, was
very large, and consisted of a mass of curls, of the
kind that young ladies now call frizzled; and as the
collar of the vest was narrow, and the collar of the
coat laid flat on the back, the bottom of the wig
could reach quite near to the shoulders without
interfering with any part of the dress. Surmounting all was a large three-cornered cocked hat of
the finest beaver, but without any nap; this, with
cravat and ample bands under the chin, both of
snowy whiteness, formed the costume of the venerable man, who, on the beach of Elm Island, received the congratulations of Sally and Mrs.
Hadlock, and was regarded by these rebellious
Yankees, who had recently flung off the yoke of
monarchy, with a veneration as great as that of a
true-bred Briton for his anointed king.
In cold weather this dress was supplemented by
a long blue broadcloth cloak, with a small cape,




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 97
thrown over the shoulders, but never fastened in
front. In this dress, with no covering for his legs
from the knee to the foot except silk tight-fitting
stockings, without boots or buskins (the latter
being much worn by all except seamen, to keep
the snow out of the shoes), he preached sermons
three quarters of an hour in length, in a meetinghouse without fire, and quite open.
Why the good man did not freeze is to us a
mystery only to be solved by concluding, with
Aunt Molly Bradish, that "'twas all ordered."
At the meeting they got along splendidly with
their singing, Uncle Isaac lifting the tune and
taking the lead. The whole company thought
they had never heard such a sermon; that the good
man excelled himself; while he spoke in the highest terms of the silging.
In respect to the supper, it needed not the
encomiums freely lavished upon it, as the performiiances of the reverend gentleman and all concerned afforded more substantial evidence than
figures of rhetoric could furnish of their appreciation of its merits.
In short, it was a most pleasant and profitable
season to all. No one seemed to enjoy himself
7




98  THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
less, not even Captain Rhines and the minister, for
the lack of spirit.
" One thing is sartin, Benjamin," said Uncle
Isaac, as they sat down together in the porch, to
enjoy a quiet pipe; "which is, that people can
enjoy themselves, be sociable and neighborly, without liquor."
"Yes, and feel better after it's over," was the
reply.
Capacious as Ben's house now was, it could by
no means lodge all the company. A field bed was
made in the parlor and kitchen, with additional
bed-clothes which Ben had borrowed from  his
mother and Mrs. Hadlock.
The schooner's crew slept on board; Fred and
Charlie, to their entire satisfaction, in the haymow,
as it was long since they had met, and they had
many things to talk over.
They dug a great hole in the hay and lined it
with the mainsail of the WVest Wind, got a meal
bag and stuffed it with chaff for a pillow, then
taking the foresail for a covering, they lay spoonfhshion, and talked themselves to sleep.
"Charlie," said Fred, " I'll tell you what I've been
thinking about: there are a good many people that
fish in big canoes; they catch a great many fish in




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 99
the spring and summer, and even in the winter,
when there comes a spell of good weather, that
they dare go out, because, you know, they have to
row in. Well, they say, if I will put some goods
in the mill, that they will bring their fish to me,
and take pay in goods. Then some that fish in
schooners, say, if I will put up some flakes, they
will bring their fish  to me, and give me one
quintal in fifteen for making them."
"I'd do it, Fred; I think you'll stand in your
own light if you don't; you know you've got a
wharf at the mill to land fish and goods, and a
place in your mill for your goods, measures, a scale
and weights, counter and shelves: you are all
fixed."
"Not by a good deal. If I take fish from the
canoes, I must have a fish-house to salt and keep
them in, and a pair of large scales to weigh them,
and the fish-house must be large enough to store a
fare of fish, or two or three, till they are made and
marketed. Then it will cost something to put up
flakes; though father says he'll give me the timber
to build the house and flakes, and let me use his
oxen to haul the timber to the spot, and the logs
to the mill for the boards. But then I can't sell
these fish till fall; and in the mean time I must




100 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
buy salt and goods, and I don't like to run in debt.
I have but little money, and I ain't one of the kind
to go into a thing without making some kind of
calculation as to how I'm coming out."
" I'll tell you what you do, Fred: go and cut your
frame, and logs for boards; haul your frame logs to
the spot, and roll them up on skids all ready to
hew, and your logs for boards to the mill; cut and
haul your stuff for flakes; Joe Griffin won't be
gone more than a fortnight or three weeks; when
he comes back, I'll get him and his crew, father,
and some more, and we'll hew your firame out,
raise it, and make your flakes in two days. I can
board and shingle it, and make the doors for you,
and you can pay me in goods."
" You are very kind, Charlie; it's just like you;
but even with all these helps, I've not half money
enough; three hundred and fifty dollars won't go
far in buying goods."
"What kind of goods do you want?"
"The most, of molasses, tea, coffee, and salt.
O, I forgot the tobacco. Rum I don't drink, and
won't sell. These are the heaviest. I shall want
some sugar, nails, a few pots and kettles, medicines,
calico, powder and shot; the rest I can barter for
round( here. You know it takes a good while, and




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 101
is a great deal of expense, to get goods from Portland or Boston here. You must be able, when you
go, to buy enough at once to last a good while."
"Now, Fred, listen to me: you, John, and myself have always been together, like the fingers on
one hand; we put our ventures into your hands,
and you did well for yourself and us: now, what
is to hinder John and me from  putting more
goods in your store to sell at half profits. I've got
four hundred dollars, John has got three hundred
dollars; there's seven hundred dollars: we'll put
that into tea and coffee; we'll get Captain Rhines
to go to Boston or Portland, and buy it for us, put
it in your hands to sell at half profits; then you
can have your own money to get other things.
You can put a few goods in, and go right to taking
fish from the canoes, and by the time the large
vessels get along, we will get our goods."
" Charlie, you are a friend indeed; but will John
be willing to do it? "
"Yes; John Rhines will be willing to do anything that is good and noble. He started the
matter the first time; I mean to get the start of
him now. I'll write to him to-morrow; there's a
vessel going to Portlandc with timber, and the
money is over to his father's."




102 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Then," said Fred, "I'll go to Portland in her,
and get a few things. I can salt the fish in our
barn till I get the fish-house built, and put any dry
fish I may make in the mill."
"I don't believe but I can coax Joe Griffin to go
in, and Flour; he's got money in Captain Rhines's
hands; I know father will."
It now being well towards morning, they went to
sleep. The next day, Charlie not only persuaded
Joe Griffin, but Uncle Isaac and his father, to help
Fred.
" I'll tell you," said Captain Rhines, " what you
had better do. It's a poor calculation for Fred to
take what he has got land go buy a small quantity
— he can't make anything. I'll take him and
Charlie in the Perseverance, and we'll go right to
Boston and get the whole. I'll get Mr. Welch to
buy for me; he will do it better than I can."
" But we've not heard from John," said Charlie.
" Well, I've got the money, and I'll take it with
me. TWe'll run into Portland and ask him. I'll get
Flour to put his in. I'll put in the tea and tobacco,
because I expect to trade with Fred, and I want to
be sure that they're good."
The company now prepared to depart; but Ben
persuaded Parson Goodhue to stay, telling him




PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 103
that the vessel was going to Boston the next day,
and they would set him ashore at the mill wharf
as they went along.
While Ben and Charlie were gone to the main
land with their friends, the minister was left with
Sally and Mrs. Hadlock. He amused himself by
taking a walk over the island, admiring its beauty,
and looking at the crops. Charlie had told him
he had a wild goose and gander, and also some
goslings, the progeny of a tame goose and the wild
gander. After returning to the house and resting
a while, he expressed a strong desire to see them.
"I can find them, Mrs. Rhines, if you will tell
me in what direction to go."
" I don't think you had better go alone, sir, for
the gander is in the pen, and is quite cross."
"Indeed, Mrs. Rhines, I trust you don't think
I'm afraid of a goose."
But Sally persisted in going with him.
The reverend gentleman was very much pleased
with the goslings, who bore a strong resemblance
to both parents; but he was especially delighted
with the wild gander, which was a splendid fellow,
and, fiorom being well fed, was large and plump.
"I feel that I must get over in the pen, Mrs
Rhines; the gander seems perfectly docile."




104 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Don't, Mr. Goodhue, I beg of you; he is very
savage, I assure you."7
He, however, persisted in getting into the pen,
despite her entreaties.
"Only observe how affectionate and quiet he
has become in captivity; intercourse with human
beings has doubtless exerted an ameliorating influence upon his naturally savage nature: you will
notice, Mrs. Rhines, that he does not open his
mouth and siss, as even the tame ganders will do;
indeed, I have always thought the study of natural
history a most delightful and fascinating recreation:
it is, in one sense, a revelation."
As we have before observed, suspenders were
not worn in those days; and any exertion often
caused the breeches to work down, and the waistcoat to work up, so as to render the linen visible
between them.
In walking over the island and climbing the
fence, the good man had so exerted himself, that a
large fold of shirt appeared, and hung over the
waistband. The gander came up to him, put his
head very gently against him, took hold of it, and,
while the attention of the minister was directed to
the goslings and the tame goose, filled his mouth
with the cloth; at length, having with the utmost




PARSON'GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. -Page. 105.








PARSON GOODHUE AND THE WILD GANDER. 105
gentleness obtained a firm hold, the gander sud.
denly spread his great wings and began to thrash
the minister about the head and face, with the
force of so many flails. His cocked hat was
knocked off in an instant; the wig followed suit.
Blinded and confused, he jumped back, falling
prostrate upon his back: he was now at the mercy
of his antagonist, who, with the knobs of horn on
his wings, inflicted blows upon his face and bare
scalp, that drew blood at every stroke, the wild
goose seconding the efforts of her mate by viciously nipping his legs and hands.
His screams were heard by Sally, who, deceived
by the apparent good nature of the gander, had
gone to the house to see to the baby. She threw
her shawl over the gander's wings, and seizing him
by the neck, choked him off, and thrust him into
the pen made for the tame goose to sit in, then assisted the parson to rise.
He was indeed in a sorry plight; the blood was
streaming from his face and scalp, his clothing
was soiled by the impurities of the yard, his face
covered with straw and feathers which the wings
of the gander had flung over him, and that stuck
in the blood. The wild goose, with that strong,
sharp bill, with which they will pull up eel-grass




106 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
by the roots, had torn holes in the black silk stockings, and even torn the skin beneath.
Sally was affected to tears by this wholesale
desecration of the person of one she had been
accustomed from infancy to look up to with reverence. The wig, which had been the great
object of her veneration, and the cocked hat
were trampled under foot by the parson in his first
attempts to escape. This, indeed, was no trifling
matter, as the wig could only be dressed and
curled once a year; and for this it was necessary
to go to Boston, and it took a professional hairdresser a whole day.
The good man, however, was much less disturbed than Sally, and after he had been put to
rights by her and Sally MIerrithew, took quite a
cheerful view of the matter, affirming, that though
Paul passed through many perils, he much doubted
whether he had ever been in peril by a wild gander.




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON.   107
CHAPTER VII.
CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS WHILE IN BOSTON.
WHEN Ben returned, he was no less concerned
than Sally, and instantly proceeded to administer
consolation in a more practical form, by proposing
that he should take passage with his father and the
boys to Boston, have the wig dressed, and procure
an entire new suit, and he would pay the bills.
But the good man's troubles were not ended yet.
The barbers were accustomed, when they dressed
wigs, to put them on blocks of wood, made in the
form of a head. It so happened that, there being
a great deal of work in the barber's shop, all the
blocks were in use. The barber, for want of a
block, clapped the wig on the head of his negro
apprentice to dress it. A band of music came
along, and the negro, jumping up, ran out to listen.
He went by a carriage-maker's shop, when a man,
who was at work painting wheels, struck with the
ludicrous appearance of a negro with a snow-white
wig, poured a whole paper of lampblack on his




108 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM: ISLAND.
head. This finished up the wig. But Captain
Rhines, after laughing till the tears ran down his
cheeks, procured another.
Charlie spent every leisure moment, while in
Boston, in the ship-yards and boat-builders' shops.
Mr. Welch, who had become thoroughly acquainted with Charlie while visiting Elm Island,
invited him and Fred to come with Captain Rhines
to dinner. He soon wormed out of Charlie all he
had in view respecting Fred, which caused him to
become interested in the boy, and he gave him
much good advice in respect to business, concluding his remarks by telling him he would buy all
the fish he could cure, and give him the highest
market prices, according to quality.
Mr. Welch invited, and insisted on, Captain
Rhines coming to tea, as he had some private
matters he wished to talk over with him.
"IMy old friend," said the merchant, deeply
moved, taking both the captain's hands in his the
moment they were alone, "my oldest son, who
bears my name, —a name which I have ever striven
to connect with everything good and honorable,is little better than a drunkard. He is both indolent
and vicious. His conduct has broken my heart,
and is fast bringing my gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave."




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 109
Captain Rhines, not knowing how to reply, remained silent; but the pressure of the hand, and
the tears that gathered in his eyes, attested, beyond
the power of words, his sympathy.
"He is," continued the parent, "of large business
capacity, attractive in his manners, and makes
friends, though of violent temper when aroused."
"Why don't you send him to sea? Let him see
the hard side of life, come to misery, and learn to
submit."
"I would, but it would kill his mother. She
thinks his temper is so violent he would kill some
one, or be killed himself."
" Nonsense! begging your pardon. He may be
very violent with you or his mother; but let the
mate of a vessel get afoul of him, and he would
knuckle fast enough. I wish I was going to sea
now; I'd engage to bring himl to his bearings, and
not hurt him, either."
"His mother would never consent to his going
to sea. But I'll tell you what I've been thinking
of ever since I was at Elm Island. That is a place
free from temptation. Iie resembles me in many
things. Like me, he is extravagantly fond of gunning and fishing, and has keen appreciation of
everytlhing beautiful in nature. I thought, if he




110 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
could spend a summer in that beautiful spot, - he
likes you and Ben; he couldn't help liking Charlie
and Sally,- perhaps it might aid him to rally, for
I think of late he has made some effort in that
direction. His mother has often spoken of it, and
says she would not be afraid to have him go to
Elm Island."
"She need be under no apprehension of his hurting Ben, and Bell certainly won't hurt him."
"It is not altogether in respect to Elm Island
that I wished to speak. But while I was there, I
became acquainted with Mr. Murch - Uncle Isaac,
as everybody there calls him. He is certainly a
most remarkable man. I don't know what it is,
but there's something about him impresses and influences one in spite of himself. I couldn't help
feeling, while I was talking with him, that I wanted him to have a good opinion of me, and was
vexed with myself for wishing that I knew what
he thought of me."
"Let me tell you, my friend, you couldn't have a
greater compliment than Isaac's good opinion."
"But the most remarkable thing is the liking
that your John and Charlie, and, as far as I could
see, every other boy, seems to have for him, and
the influence he has over them, Why, John told




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 111ll
me- and Charlie says the same - that this young
Williams was a bad, mischievous boy, so bad that
they were determined not to play with him, and
would have given him up had it not been for Mr.
Murch. Now, if he can work such miracles, why,
if my poor boy was down there, couldn't he, with
God's help and blessing, do something for him?"
"It is quite a different case. These were boys;
your son is - "
" Twenty-two next March."
"They were on the same level with Isaac. Your
son is educated, and Isaac would seem like an old
codger to an educated man."
"He wouldn't hold to that opinion long when he
came to be acquainted with him. It is too late
now for this year. But if you think Benjamin
would be willing, -I should expect to pay his
way, of course, -I should like to try it, if I could
get him to go."
"Anything that I or Ben can do, we will be
glad to. Our hearts and homes are open to you."
"You are very kind, and I will think more about
it; there's time enough. Now, my dear friend,
permit me to say a word to you. I am considerably older than yourself. Our friendship is of long
standing. It dates back to the year you was twen



112 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF EL]M ISLAND.
ty-one, and came to Boston mate of the first vessel
I ever owned any part of. We ought by this time
to know each other as well as we love each other.
I feel as if I must tell you there is but one thing
you lack. Do, my old friend, give your heart to
God. Let us be one in feeling and sympathies
here, as we are in every other respect. In this
bitter trial which has come upon me, it has been
my stay and comfort. If I could not have cast my
burden on the bosom of the Savior, I should have
gone mad. There are sorrows to which wealth can
offer no alleviation, but there are none beyond the
aid of divine grace."
Captain Rhines was touched to the very heart,
and most of all by the noble spirit manifested by
his fiiend, who, when crushed to the earth by individual grief, turned from his own sorrows to seek
his good.
" I have, indeed," he replied, "'endeavored to
live a moral life. I was the child of godly parents,
have been blessed with a pious wife, and am a
firm believer in the truths of the gospel; but I
know that I need more than this -that I must be
born again. It is impossible for a man of ordinary
intelligence and capacity to follow the sea, as I
have for more than thirty years, without at times




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 113
feeling deeply his accountability. Oftentimes at
sea, and at other times at home, when Mr. Goodhue, a good, faithful man, has talked with me, I
have resolved - I have resolved to pray, but never
have done it; yet I trust I shall."
"Life is uncertain. We may never meet again.
Kneel down with me."
They knelt together, and M1r. Welch pleaded'with his Maker for the salvation of his fiiend;
and, as they parted, Captain Rhines promised
him that he would take the matter into serious
consideration, and endeavor to pray for himself.
"The same energy and resolution, nay dear friend,
that carried the Ark through the storms of the
Gulf Stream  into the harbor of Havana, and at
one stroke won a fortune for yourself and son, will
carry you into the Ark of Safety, and perhaps be
the salvation of your whole family."
During their stay in Boston, Mr. Welch derived
great pleasure from talking with Charlie. It was a
relief to the heart of the worn and weary old man
to listen to the conversation of the fresh-hearted
boy, full of hope and buoyancy. IHle entered into
all his plans, and drew from hiin his little secrets,
which helped to withdraw him fiom his own griefs.
Charlie told him about his great disappointment by
8




114 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the wreck of the West Wind, and he didn't know
how it would be, but thought some time he should
try to build a boat with timbers. Aware of Charlie's love of the soil, and all connected with it, he
took him into his orchard, where his gardener was
putting in grafts, and told him to show Charlie
how to set them, and also how to bud. The first
thing he said, after he found he could perform the
operation, was, "O, how glad father and mother
will be!"
"I wish he was my boy," was the thought that
arose in the mind of the merchant, as he perceived
how love for his' adopted parents colored every
impulse of his heart.
"C-Has your father got his ground ready for his
orchard? If he has, you might take some trees
home with you."
" No, sir, but he will have it ready in the fall."
"But haven't you got some room in the garden,
where you could put a few trees temporarily, and
then take them up?"
" 0, yes, sir."
"Well, you can take home some apple and pear
trees that have never been grafted, and the scions,
and graft them yourself. It will be good practice
for you; and then, when you get the ground ready,




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 115
you can put them in the orchard. Are there not
wild cherry trees and thorn bushes on the island? "
"Yes, sir, plenty of both. Lots of cherry trees
came up on the burns."
"Well, you can graft the cherries with cherries,
and the thorns with pears."
" How nice that will be!"
"But you must graft the thorns close to the
ground, and bank the earth up around them, that
the pear may take root for itself."
"Why is that, sir? "
" Because the pear will, in a few years, outgrow
the thorn bush, and will break down just as it
begins to bear. The pear and the thorn follow
their own nature and habits of growth."
"That is very singular, sir."
"Yes, but so it is. Look at that apple tree just
before us."
The tree to which Mr. Welch referred had been
grafted about two feet from the ground when it
was little, and the graft jutted over the lower portions all around three or four inches.
"These trees," said iMr. Welch, "are both apple
trees, but the upper one is a larger growing variety;
still there is not the difference there is between a
thorn bush and a peal tree, so that one bread.s the




116 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
other down. It's just like religion, Charlie; religion don't alter a person's color or size, or give
him senses; but it gives him different tastes, turns
sour to sweet, and leads him to a better improvement of what faculties he already has. Who runs
out land down your way, Charlie?"
"Squire Eveleth, sir; but he's getting quite old
and feeble, and can't go into the woods; and peo.
ple often come for father to run land and measure
timber."
" Has your father got instruments? 
" Ie has calipers and a rule to measure timber;
but he hires Squire Eveleth's compass and chain
when he runs land."
"WaVould you like to learn surveying, Charlie?"
"0, yes, sir, I like to learn anything; but I
would like to learn that uncommon well."
"You might pick up a good deal of money in
that way in a new  country, where people are
always buying and selling land, and the stump
leave of timber."
" Yes, sir; I suppose I might."';"When you will write me that you have learned
to survey, I will send you a compass, and all the
instruments you want."
"I thank you very much indeed, sir; I will get
father to learn me this winter."




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 117
When Charlie left, Mr. Welch gave him some
books that treated of agriculture, text-books to
study surveying, a gauge, bevel, carpenter's pocket
rule, and a case of instruments to draw geometrical
figures.
" What a pretty craft this is! " said Mr. Welch, as
he stood on the wharf to see them off; " she certain.
ly don't look or smell much like a fisherman."
"She hasn't been a fishing since last fall," replied the captain. " Ben, you know, is a deep-water
sailor, and keeps to his old notions. Nobody, I
guess, ever caught a fisherman holy-stoning his
decks, and they don't slush the masts any higher
than they canr reach."
" She's a beauty; but she seems small to go to
the stormy coast of Labrador, the Bay of Fundy,
and those places where fishermen go."
"Small! Believe me, I would sooner take my
chance for life on a lee shore, or lying to in a gale
of wind, in her, than in any ship I was ever in.
A chebacco boat will beat square to windward
where a ship couldn't hold her own; lie to and
keep dry till all is blue; and drug them, they will
live forever. I served my apprenticeship in a
chebacco boat; I ought to know something about
them."




118 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Having a fair wind, Captain Rhines did not
touch at Portland on his way. up to Boston; but
going home, he put in there, saw John, and told
him what disposition he had made of his money,
of' which John highly approved.
The goods they had bought and brought home
were put into the mill. Charlie got up his "bee,"
built the fish-house and flakes, and Fred soon
covered them with fish. As it took but three good
days to make the fish sufficiently to put them
in the house, it soon assumed the air of a business
place.
Fred's stock of goods was so much larger than
before, that the store in the mill was enlarged,
additional shelves put up, and many conveniences
added; he also got rid of trusting anybody, as so
large a portion of his goods were sold on commission. In order to render it easier to keep accounts,
each one put in separate articles. Teas and tobacco belonged to Captain Rhines; hardware, iron,
and nails, to John; molasses, to Charlie; and so on;
the smaller articles Fred purchased himself.
Charlie made Fred a sign-board, and he took it
to WViscasset and had it lettered. Every day,
often before sunrise, Fred was to be seen taking
fish from the pickle and putting them on the flakes,




CHARLIE GETS NEW IDEAS IN BOSTON. 119
or salting them as they came from the boats, or
turning them on the flakes, every now and then
running to the store to wait on some customer.
The good minister recognized the hand of
Providence in the affliction which resulted in a
new suit from top to toe; yet it may well be
doubted whether he ever again became so fascinated with the study of natural history as to
pursue it in a goose pen, or to take for his subject
a wild gander.




120 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER VIII.
NO GIVE'UP TO CHARLIE.
CHARLIE lost but very little time, after his arrival at the island, before he began to set out his
trees, and, having completed this work, was ready
to graft them. He wisely determined not to graft
them all, fearing, as he was new in the business,
they might not take.
Going to the brook, he procured some blue clay,
made it soft with water, mixed  the hair and
manure of cattle with it, and after putting in his
scions, covered the cleft with the composition (the
use of wax was not known then); but the clay, after
all, is better, though it takes three times as long to
put it on, and is less agreeable to handle.
He then covered the clay with tow, and almost
every day went to look at them, to see if they
were going to take, and then grafted a large
number of thorn bushes and wild cherry trees.
The crops were now in the ground, Fred set up
in business again, and the baby in his new cradle.




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.         121
The swallows had completed their nests, and were
twittering from the eaves of the barn. A pair of
robins had established themselves at the fall of the
brook, in the birch that flung its shadow over
Sally's tubs, and the spout which Charlie had
made to carry the water into them; adjoining to
which was a little green plat bordering the brook,
and fringed with wild flowers that had come to
Elm Island with the birds; here was where Sally
washed and bleached her linen, singing meanwhile,
as though washing was the most delightful occupation in the world.
Robins are a right sociable bird, and they didn't
seem to be the least mite disturbed by Sally's
operations, but, whenever she sang, replied to her
with all their heart. Whenever she left the tub to
sprinkle water on the linen spread out to whiten,
they would light on the edge of it and sing. More
tardy in their arrival than the others, but not less
welcome, were four bobolinks. MIany times in a
day, Charlie would come racing down to the brook,
and say, -
"Mother, do listen to that fellow, singing on the
top of that fire-weed; don't he go it as if it did
him good? Come, mother, let's you and I sing;"
and they would strike up, "Johnny has gone to
the Fair."




122 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
When all these excitements were over, those
natural impulses which can never be suppressed
for any great length of time began to assert their
claims, and Charlie's thoughts to run in their
wonted channel; his fingers itched to be once
more handling tools. He began to talk with his
father, while they were hoeing together, in respect
to the best kinds of wood for boat-building, who
told him that ships' boats were generally built of
oak, both plank and timbers, because they had to
undergo a great deal of hard usage, and were often
beached with heavy loads in them; but that he
had seen a great many boats made of pine and
spruce; that they were more buoyant, would carry
more, were lighter to handle, and if kept afloat,
and off the rocks, were just as good. We would
observe here, that the covering of a boat is called
plank, though it has only the thickness of a
board.
Ben also told him that cedar was an excellent
material to build boats of; that in Bermuda he had
seen vessels of thirty tons built entirely of cedar;
that it was strong enough, very durable, and would
not soak water; that a boat built altogether of
cedar would live forever in a sea, they were so
buoyant, just like an egg-shell, top of everything;




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.        123
you couldn't get any water into them; and that
was the wood whale boats were built of.
The moment Charlie began to talk with his
father on this subject, the smouldering fire began to
burn. He remembered how gloriously the West
Wind was streaking it just as she split in two;
again he heard the music of the water at her bows,
and felt it rushing along under her counter, and
thought how gracefully she rose on a sea, as he put
his helm down to shake out a flaw.
Long before night he had decided to build a
boat that could not split in two, and also the
material he would use. There were some large
straight-grained sticks of cedar on the beach, which
had been cut to put into the Ark, that would make
excellent plank. As soon as he left off work at
night, he hurried through his chores, then took his
axe and went into the woods.
During his visits to Boston and Portland, he had
spent most of his leisure time in the ship-yards and
boat-builders' shops. During his last visit he had
seen three boats in different stages of progress. One
of them had the stem and stern-post fastened to the
keel, and a couple of floor timbers put on; another
was completely timbered, and one streak of plank,
the one next to the top, put on. He asked the




124 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
builder why that one alone was put on. He said.
that was the binding streak, which kept the boat
in shape, and confined all the timbers, and that
now the boat might be laid by, and finished at any
time, as she would not get out of shape; that the
top streak was left off in order that the sheer
(crook) of the boat might be taken out of that.
Although he did not even then think seriously
of trying to build a boat, or do anything more than
fasten the West Wind together and secure her
with knees, yet his mechanical turn led him to
measure the depth, length, and breadth of beam
of this boat, the distance apart of the timbers, and
the size of them, and to notice the manner in
which they steamed the plank to bend them. He
also perceived that the transom of a boat (square
end of the stern), instead of being made of timber,
and covered like that of a vessel, was made either
of one or two pieces of plank, and fastened to the
stern-post.
Thus he knew what material he wanted. Finding an oak, the body of which would afford material for stern, keel, transom, and thwarts, and the
limbs make knees and breast-hooks, he cut it down,
and hauled it to the beach, intending to lash the
cedar to it, and towing them both to the mill, have
them sawed to answer his purpose.




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.        125
"I wouldn't go to all that trouble," said Ben.
", The first rainy day that comes, we will take them
into the barn, and saw them with the whip-saw."
(During the winter Charlie had learned to saw
with it.) He decided to build her in the barn,
where were a large workshop and bench, and he
could work there rainy days.
He built an arch, with stones and clay mortar,
near the barn, set the small sap kettle in it, and
made a steam box to steam his planks, in order to
bend them. His next operation was to haul the
two halves of the West Wind to the barn, and
fasten them together. With pieces of thin board
he took the exact shape of her side in different
places —in the middle, a little forward of that,
then nearly to the stem forward, and nearly to the
stern aft. These moulds reversed would answer
equally well for the other side.
The first rainy day, Ben helped him saw out his
oak and cedar; he stuck the cedar up to season.
The next two days being too wet to hoe, he made
the keel, stem, and stern-post by that of the old
boat, and put in the deadwood.
The extreme ends of a boat or vessel, being too
thin to admit of timbering, are filled up by putting
in knees and timber, which afford support to both




126 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the stem and stern-post, and a place to fasten the
upright timbers that form the extremity of the bow
and stern. This is firmly bolted to the keel, and
called the deadwood.
Taking the shape of the stern, he by this cut out
his transom from a whole piece of plank, and secured
it to the stern-post. There is quite a difference
between the timbering of a vessel and a boat.
The timbers, which form what is called a frame in
ship-building, reaching from the keel to the top,
are numerous, and are named floor timbers, futtocks, top timbers, and naval timbers, or ground
futtocks. The floor timbers are placed at right.angles with the keel, forming the flat bottom or
floor -of a vessel, which gives her buoyancy and
stability to carry sail, and the other timbers are
fastened to these, the futtocks first, forming the
curvature of the side, and the top timbers last.
But a boat has only two timbers in a frame.
The boat-builder puts his floor timbers on the keel,
and fastens them there, then makes all the rest of
the frame in one piece, which he calls a naval
timber, which laps by the floor timber to the keel,
is fastened to it, and fbrms the side. Builders now
make their timbers out of plank, which they steam
and bend to suit them. They pursued this course




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.         127
in England, and some other parts of Europe, even
at that period; but in this country they used the
natural crooks, branches, and roots of trees, and
even to this day, in Maine, boats are built in this
way, though not by professional builders. They
use natural crooks for breast hooks, knees, and floor
timbers, and sometimes for sharp risers, and the
V-shaped timbers that form the ends, but bend all
the rest. Some of them bend knees and breast
hooks by slitting the timber to let one part crowd
by the other; thus they can make the angle to suit
them. And latterly, at East Boston, a ship has
been built in which all those great timbers that
make the frame and knees of a vessel were steamed
and bent.
You must remember, young readers, that Charlie was compelled to dig everything out as he went
along. He was very differently situated from an
apprentice, who has the instructions of his master,
and learns all the rules of his art step by step.
He was alone on Elm Island, thrown entirely on
his own resources, and with only such information
as he had derived from transient visits to a boatbuilder's shop.
He now wanted a mould for his floor timbers.
As he had taken the whole measure of the side to




128 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the keel, this gave him the rise (crook) of the
floor timbers, but he was at loss how long to make
them. However, he had now become so full of
boat that nothing would stop him.
The Perseverance lay at anchor in the harbor,
having come in for bait. He cut out the ceiling in
two places to look at her floor timbers, and made
his, as he thought, of a proportionate length.
HIe now drew two lines on the barn floor as long
as the keel, and as far apart as it was thick; then,
placing his naval timber moulds against this line,
he marked out the shape and length of the floor
timbers, and made moulds for them, cut the rabbet
on the keel, and at the stem and stern, to receive
the plank. He then took his moulds, and, going to
the woods, cut limbs and dug out roots to correspond to the shape of them, and with broadaxe,
saw, and draw-shave, brought them  to the right.shape and dimensions, which was ten times the
work it would have been to get them out of plank
sawed at the mill to the right thickness, and bend
them.
Fastening his timbers to the keel, and measuring
the width of the West WVind, he brought them by
cross-pawls to the same width. He next took some
long, narrow strips of boards, called ribbands, and




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.         129
fastening one of them to the stem, he brought it
along the heads of the floor timbers, and nailed it
to the stern-post and floor timbers. He put another along the tops of the naval timbers, and one
between; then made moulds for all the other timbers by shoving them out against these ribbands,
and shaping them by his eye. After the timbers
were all in, he carefully adjusted the tops by crossbands and shores on the outside, till a plumb-line,
dropped from the centre of one strethed from
stem to stern, struck the centre of the keel; then,
by measuring from each side to this line, he knew
she was just as full on one side as the other. He
also ascertained that he could get the bevel of the
timber by the ribbands by taking off the wood
wherever they bore on the edges of the timbers.
As the boat sharpens, the timbers straighten, and
take the form of the letter V. As they no longer
require bending, the boat-builders saw them from
straight plank, and crow-foot (notch) them to the
keel, and at the stem and stern-post, and scarf
them to the deadwood; but Charlie procured
crotches, as there were plenty of them in the
woods, where the branches of trees forked, presenting the most acute angles.
Working a narrow plank all around the inside
9




130 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
for the thwarts to rest on, called a "rising," he put
them in, planing and putting a bead on the edges,
and rubbing them smooth with dog-fish skin, Charlie's substitute for sand-paper, although he could
not knee them till -the boat was farther advanced.
He now found that she was not widest amidships,
but that her greatest breadth was forward of the
middle timber. Thus, in taking a fish for his guide
he had obtained what is now ascertained to be the
best proportion for speed.
He felt pretty nice when he had accomplished
all, as he had done it by rising as soon as it was
light, working at night as long as he could see, and
on rainy days. HIe thought he had done the thing,
and won the victory.
Looking all around to see if anybody saw him,
he began to dance around the boat, and sing, "I've
done it! I've done it! I've got something that
won't split in two now! What will Fred, John,
and Uncle Isaac say to this?  Won't I be proud
showing her to Uncle Isaac and Joe Griffin! I
must finish her up nice, for their eyes are sharper
than needles. There's Sam Chase, who laughed
when the West Wind split in two, and said he was
glad of it - mean, spiteful creature! I guess he'll
laugh t'other side of his mouth this time. Now,




NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.         131
I should like to wrestle with somebody, or do
something or other. Guess I'll go look at the apple trees, and see if the scions have taken. There's
the horn for supper. Well, I'll go after supper. It
was well for me it rained this forenoon, or I should
not have accomplished all this."
After supper, as Charlie sat playing with the
baby, and telling his father of his success with the
boat, in came Ben, Jr., in high feathers, with both
hands full of scions, and covered with tow, and
flung them into his mother's lap, laughing and
crowing as though he had done some great and
good thing.
"0, you little torment!" cried Charlie; "if you
haven't pulled out all the scions Mr. Welch gave
me!"
It was even so. Ben, attracted by the bunches
of clay covered with tow, and the scions sticking
up through them, had made a clean sweep, and
pulled out or broken off every one.
"Only see, mother!" said Charlie; "they've
nearly all started! There's one got two leaves,
and there's two more with the buds opening! "
"I've a good mind," said his mother, "to give
him a good whipping."
Ben, who loved Charlie with all his heart, seeing




132 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
he was angry with him, began to cry as if his heart
would break,
" Don't cry," said Charlie, mollified in an instant.
"I wouldn't whip him, mother. He didn't know
any better. I'm glad I didn't graft all of them."
To change his thoughts, he took his gun and
Sailor, and, getting into the Twilight, pulled over
to Griflln's Island,




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 133
CHAPTER IX.
CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE.
WHEN Charlie first sat down to his oars, he was
not in so happy and jubilant a frame as when
leaving the barn, after having completed the timbering out of his boat; but as he pulled away from
the island, the calm hour, the beauty of the sea and
shore, the glassy surface of the bay touched by the
rays of the setting sun, gradually tranquillized his
perturbed feelings.
"I have learned to graft, at any rate," he soliloquized, "and I can get some more scions of Mr.
Welch." And by the time he was half way to the
island he had begun to sing and talk aloud to
himself.
Charlie's love for the soil had by no means become weakened through his devotion to boatbuilding; and now that the distress was over, and
he felt that he could do it, he bethought himself of
other matters that required looking after.
The garden must be seen to right away, the




134 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
beets and carrots must be weeded, the honeysuckle
nailed up, the beans and squashes hoed, and sticks
put to the peas.
"There," said he, "is that cabbage rose-bush,
Mary Rhines gave me, ought to have a hoop to
hold it up. I'll make one, like a Turk's head,
out of willow, and stain it, and plane out three
stakes of oak to hold it up; and I'll stain them; it's
the last green dye I've got; but I don't care."
Charlie now had two objects in view: one was, to
shoot a seal, and the other, and more important
one, to learn to growl like them. In summer
evenings, seals are very fond of resorting to the
ledges at half tide, and to the sand spits, where
they lie and suckle their young, where they feel safe,
and much at home, growl, and are very sociable.
The many ledges lying off Griffin's Island were
frequented by seals; but one in particular, called
the Flatiron from  its shape, was a favorite resort, because, while the others were within gunshot of the island, this was far beyond the range of
any ordinary gun. Charlie, knowing this, had
brought, in addition to his own gun, Ben's great
wall piece, the barrel of which was seven feet in
length, and the stock looked as if it had been
hewed out with an axe. Uncle Isaac had often




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 135
threatened to make a new stock for it. Notwithstanding its bad looks, it was a choice gun for
long distances, and threw the charge where it was
pointed.
This ledge also possessed another attraction for
the seals, as it was flat, smooth, covered with a
soft mat of sea-weed, and at the edges slanted off
into deep water; thus they could put their watchman on a little ridge that rose up in the middle
very much like the handle of a flatiron, and when
he gave the alarm, the whole band could, in an
instant, souse into the water.
Charlie knew that Uncle Isaac and Joe Griffin
could imitate the noise of seals so exactly as to
draw them on to the ledge, they supposing it to
be another seal; and that Uncle Isaac had a seal
stuffed, which he would set on a ledge, as though
alive, and then, concealing himself, make a noise
like them. The seals, hearing the noise, and seeing
the stuffed one, would endeavor to crawl up, and
thus afford a shot. Charlie was an excellent singer,
and a pretty good mimic, and hoped by practice to
obtain sufficient accuracy to deceive a seal; and
he wanted to kill one to stuff, that he might try
Uncle Isaac's plan.
Landing, and crossing the island, he approached




136 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the bank abreast the ledge. Near this bank was
a ridge of shelly rock, rising, about two feet from
the grass ground, to a sharp edge, from which the
land sloped gradually towards the centre of the
island -just the place to lie and rest the big gun
over the edge of the rock.
Although Charlie had no objection to shooting a
seal, he was much more anxious to practise growling. It was little after high water: he crawled up
behind the ledge, with the boat's sail over him,
to keep off the dew, and lay down in the bright
moonlight to watch the seals, who were swimming
around the top of the rock, that was just beginning
to get bare, preparing to go on to it. With the
patience of a sportsman Charlie waited; gradually
the rock was left above the water. At length one
seal ventured to land; then others followed; and
soon they began to converse. Charlie had practised
a good deal, at home, by striving to imitate them
from recollection, and now had come over here that
he might hear them more, and fix the sounds well in
his memory: so he lay and listened a long time to
the sounds, imitating thein in a low tone, repeating
them again and again. At length, flattering himself
he had caught the tone quite perfectly, he concluded
to try it on the seals; but the moment his voice rose




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 137
on the air, every one of them went into the water.
Charlie was quite mortified at this; but it was
evident they were not much alarmed, for they soon
came back, and resumed their growling. After
listening again for some time, and practising as
before, he made another effort aloud, when, to his
great joy, they remained; another attempt was
equally successful; but the third time some false
note startled the wary creatures, and off they slid
from the ledge; but after swimming around a
while they returned again.
Charlie, quite well satisfied now with his proficiency in the language, determined to shoot one
of his instructors. He took aim at a big fellow
who sat upon the highest part of the ledge and
seemed to act as watchman, and fired the old gun.
It was heavily loaded with buckshot, and the seal
never moved after receiving the charge.
" So much for the big gun," said Charlie.
On his way home he concluded not to meddle
with the boat again till some rainy day, or till he
had put the garden and flowers to rights.
After skinning his seal, cutting the skin as little
as possible, he stuffed it with salt, intending to make
a decoy of it. He rather thought he should get
into it, as the Indian got into the hog's skin to




138 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
kill poor Sally Dinsmore, thinking he could growl
a great deal better in a seal-skin.
The mornings now were most beautiful; it was
generally calm till ten or eleven o'clock; and a
busier or more attractive spot than Elm Island
presented it would be difficult to find. As the
gray light of morning began to break, you would
hear far off in the woods a single, sudden, harsh cry,
breaking with explosive force from the mouth of
an old heron, instantly followed by others; the
squawks would add their contribution; then would
follow the sharp screams of the fish-hawk, mingling
with the crowing of cocks, - of which there were
no less than three in the barn,- the clear notes of
the robin, and the twittering of many swallows from
the eaves, that, with their heads sticking out of
little round holes in their nests, were bidding their
neighbors good morning.
As the sun came up, all were stirred to new
emulation; the bobolink, shaking the dew from his
wings, poured forth his wild medley of notes; and
faint in the distance was heard the bleating of
sheep from Griffin's Island.
As Charlie, mounted on a ladder, trained the
honeysuckle over the fiont door and windows, he
often paused to listen, and sitting upon the round




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 139
of the ladder, inhaled the fragrance of the morning
air, or gazed from his elevation upon the beautiful
scene before him —the noble bay, smooth as a
mirror, touched by the full rays of the rising sun;
the gray cliffs of the islands, frowning above, with
their majestic coronal of forests; and the green
nooks, here and there upon them, glittering with
dew.
"I wish I was a bobolink -I do," said he, as he
listened to one, who, more ambitious than his mates,
was striving to lead the choir, from the summit of
a mullein stalk, with mouth wide open, wings and
every feather on him in motion.
The old bush Mrs. Hadlock had given her
daughter, sacred to the associations of childhood,
was now bending beneath its weight of flowers,
while close beside it blushed the cabbage roses,
hanging in rich clusters over the edge of the
ornamental hoop Charlie had put around the
bush.
To his great joy, Charlie found, on inspection,
that his grafts were not all destroyed. With the
best intention in the world to do mischief, Ben, Jr.,
had not accomplished his intent. The clay had
baked so hard around the scions, that he had
broken part of them off, leaving a couple of buds;




140 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
for Charlie had put one bud into the cleft of each
stock, and they were coming through the clay.
"I don't care a cent's worth," cried he, when he
saw this; "in two years I can get scions from
these."
He found that the pears and cherries that had
escaped Ben's notice had most of them taken, and
were starting finely.
You seldom find boys who have more to occupy
their attention and take up their time than Charlie
had. He had wintered eight ducks and a drake,
and young ducks were everywhere, for he had kept
the old ducks laying, and set the eggs under hens.
He had fifty hens (for there was corn enough on
Elm Island now), and troops of chickens. He also
had four mongrel geese, the offspring of the wild
gander and the tame goose, and six rabbits. He
was raising two calves, intending to have a yoke of
oxen, and thei'e were two cosset lambs; one of the
mother sheep had got cut off by the tide under the
rocks on Griffin's Island, and drowned; the other
was mired, and the eagles had picked out her eyes.
He had taught these cossets to drink cow's milk.
Ben, Jr., who was as bright and smart as he was
mischievous, attended to feeding them, and they
would follow him all around the premises; but even




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 141
this was not all. Uncle Isaac, in building fence
that spring, had found a partridge nest, with fifteen
eggs; as the parent had not begun to sit on them,
he brought them over to Charlie, well knowing his
fondness for pets.
"If you can tame them when they hatch," said
he, "you will do what was never done before."
The day before, little Ben had come upon a hen
that had stolen her nest in the edge of the woods,
and was just beginning to sit. He came into the
house full of the matter to his mother, who, taking
the hen from the nest, put her under a tub to break
her fiom wanting to sit. As there was no other
hen that wanted to sit, Charlie put the partridge
eggs in the same nest, and put the hen on them, as
he was afraid she would leave them if he put them
in a new place: he intended to keep watch of her,
and as soon as the eggs were pipped, to take the
mother and young into the barn.
Whenever Charlie had a little leisure amid his
numerous avocations, he enjoyed a great deal in
watching the proceedings of his large family, commonly as they retired for the night, as he was
generally about the barn, and more at leisure then.
Although Charlie is now verging on early manhood, resolute to grapple with danger, and yielding




142 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
to no difficulties, yet he was peculiarly boyish in
his tastes; this tendency, in part native, had been
fostered by his isolated position, which compelled
him  to find enjoyment in different sources from
boys in general; his pets were his companions. It
is a great mistake to suppose that roughness is an
attribute of courage. It was Nelson who said, as
he was dying, to his comrade through whole days
of bloodshed, " Kiss me, Hardy."
Charlie had more moral and physical courage
than Pete Clash, though he had never lost his
childish innocence.  He loved to see the hens
calling their chickens together for the night, and
collecting them under their wings, to see their
little heads sticking out from under their mothers'
breasts, and chirping, as though saying, "Mother,
it ain't night yet; it ain't time to go to bed;" or in
another case, where the chickens had outgrown
their swaddling-clothes, two of them roosting on
their mother's back. He also noticed the contrast
between the hens, as they went to roost, and the
swallows, whose nests were hung to the rafters and
purlins, just above the high beams, on which they
roosted. The hens seemed inspired with the very
spirit of discord the moment the hour of retiring
arrived. Madame Ebony, rejoicing in the dignity




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 143
of age, and a grandmother, was shocked that a
yellow-legged, last year's late chick, that had not
yet laid a litter of eggs, and those she had laid not
but a trifle larger than potato balls, should presume to roost next to her, and began picking at
her to drive her off the perch, while Mrs. Yellowlegs exclaimed, "I'm a married woman! I'm as
good as you are any day in the year! I'll call my
husband!"
In the midst of this brawl, the white rooster,
who prefers to do all the fighting himself, flies up,
and knocks them both down into the barn floor,
when every hen in the barn screams out at the top
of her voice, " Served them right!"
At length all is measurably quiet. A dispute
commences between Mrs. Brown and Airs. White,
in which all take sides, as to which has had the
most children. This is hardly over, and all about
to compose themselves for the night, when the old
white rooster espies a younger one on the end of
the same beam, close to the eaves, and instantly
calls out, " Ah, you thought I didn't see you! Get
off that beam, you miserable upstart!"
"I won't. I've as good right here on this beam
as you have. It ain't any of your beam."
Upon this, outraged dignity, to avenge himself,




144 THE YOUNG SHIP-IBUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
goes walking along the beam, knocking the hens
ofl who, sputtering and fluttering, fly down into
the floor, where they are followed by the young
upstart.
The pugnacious fowls have become quiet at last,
except that occasionally some aggrieved one cries
in angry tones, "You crowd," while the other replies, "I don't —'tis yourself."
How different the swallows, who, having tarried
later out of doors than the fowls, to catch the insects that are then abundant, now come gliding on
swift and noiseless wing to their nests, through the
holes Charlie had cut for them. Here all is harmony, love, and social affection. No bickerings,
no struggle for preeminence, but, sitting on the edge
of the nest, they bid each other good night in a
pleasant twitter, and with head beneath their wing,
sink to rest.
He also took pleasure in seeing the male swabl
low put flies into the mouth of his mate, as she
sat patiently upon her eggs, or watch them feed
their young on the wing. It amused him to see
the ducks coming up from the brook in Indian file.
As he had derived much pleasure from watching
the eave-swallows as they built their nests, he was
equally interested in looking at them after they




CHARLIE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. 145
were built and filled with birds, - their heads protruding from the doors of their dwellings, — also
the courage they displayed in driving intruders
from their premises.
He found they were not quite so mild in their
dispositions as the swallows that built within, and
frequently engaged in contests with them, in which
they were generally the aggressors.
10




146 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER X.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.
WHEN Charlie had put his garden in order, and
accomplished other necessary things, he began
again to work at his boat.
If he had flattered himself that his difficulties
were over when the boat was timbered out, he
now found they had but commenced. It was
now time to put on the binding streak. He measured up from the keel at the stem and stern for his
sheer, and marked it on the timbers; then marked
the depth of the old boat on the midship timbers,
and measured down from these marks for the width
of his top streak. He then worked a ribband along
these marks from stem to stern. Those marks,
which formed the guide for the lower edge of his
top streak, also answered for the top of his binding
streak. IIe had made the top streak of one uniform width, but he now perceived that the distance
was so much greater from the keel to the gunwale
of the boat, over the middle than at the ends, that he




-WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY. 147
should get up at the ends before he was more than
two thirds up at the middle. He also saw that, by
reason of the greater fulness aft, the planks must be
wider at the ends aft than forward. He therefore
divided' them into proportionate widths to fill up;
but as he thought he had noticed that the upper
streak on boats was of a uniform width, he resolved
to let that remain. He now measured down from
the ribband for his binding streak, got it out by
the marks, and put it on; but to his mortification
it stuck up in the air at both ends. He could
scarcely believe his eyes. He went over his marks
again. They were all right, and yet the ends stuck
up far above the marks. Had these marks been
made on a fiat surface, the plank would have gone
on fair. It was the twist of the boat that threw
them up. He now saw, to his cost, that planking a
boat was quite a different thing from boarding a
barn. The upper edge of the plank came all right
along the marks, but the lower edge stood away off,
and the moment he crowded that down to its place,
up came the upper edge.
"Guess I've got a job before me now," said
Charlie. Foreseeing that he should spoil many
plank, and that they would be too stiff to bend
and work with as patterns, with Ben's aid he




148 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
sawed out some oak pieces very thin, and as these
were green, they would bend easily.
"Father, how do carpenters put plank on a
vessel?"
" I don't know. I never noticed."
" Didn't you put the wales and garboards on the
Ark?"
"No; Joe Griffin and Uncle Isaac put them on,
while you and I were towing rafts to the mill."
But Charlie had not the least idea of relinquishing effort, or yielding to difficulties, however great.
There was one essential thing in Charlie's favor.
Timber was then worth very little, and it didn't
matter much how many patterns he spoiled. It
was only the loss of labor in sawing the oak.
He now went resolutely to work.
" It must be done, and I can and will do it," was
Charlie's motto.
After a great many trials, which produced no
satisfactory results, he at length hit upon a plan.
Noticing that his plank ran up when he brought it
to, he took a board wide enough when brought to
the timbers to cover the mark for the lower edge
of the streak, notwithstanding its running up. He
made his marks on the sides of the timbers where
he could see them from the inside, and then get



WHERE THERE S A WILL THERE'S & WAY. 149
ting into the boat, marked the distance on both
edges at every timber, then struck a line from
mark to mark, leaving some wood "to come and
go upon," as the carpenter's phrase is. - In this way,
by great care, cutting and paring, he brought his
pattern to an exact fit, and got out his streaks by
it, the same pattern answering for both streaks,
both sides being alike.
It was an everlasting sight of work, but Charlie
possessed that indispensable attribute to success,
patient perseverance. Ships and boats, in their
present state of perfection, are the results of the
efforts of hand and brain for ages, each century
adding its mite.
In boat-building, as in all mechanical employments, there are certain rules which are taught by
masters to their apprentices, having themselves
received them from others, by which hundreds of
men work, who could never have discovered them
themselves. It was no marvel, then, that this boy,
though a natural mechanic, did not know how to
work plank, since, without instruction, he must
begin at the bottom and work it out himselL  He
put on his top streak the same way as the others.
The two planks of a boat next the keel are
called the garboards, and are the most difficult to




150 TIlE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
put on, as the workman there has to contend with
the peculiar twist which the planks of a boat receive at the stem and stern, and also to fit the
plank to the circular rabbet at the ends. However, he was equal to the task. Taking a very
wide, thin oak board, he steamed it a long time,
till it was as limber as a rag; then he put the lower
edge against the keel, and setting shores against it,
jammed it into the timber the whole length. He
then removed one of the end shores, so that he
could take the plank off a little to see where to
mark, and began to scratch and cut.
When he had fitted the wood ends and the
lower edge, he got inside, and scribed along the
timbers for the width of the plank. It was slow
work, but encouraged by feeling that ultimate success was only a question of time, he persevered till
his pattern fitted to a shaving. By this he got out
his two streaks, and put them on, only nailing sufficiently to keep them in shape, as he thought he
might possibly wish to make some alteration in the
width. When he had driven in the last nail, he
flung his hammer the whole length of the barn
floor, and stretched himself on the hay, completely
tired.
"I don't see what makes me feel so tired! I




WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY. 151
feel as tired as though I had been lifting rocks all
day, and yet I've only been tinkering about this
boat."
Charlie had in reality been sweating his brain,
and experienced the fatigue which results from
mental labor. Indeed, he was so wearied that
Sally, after blowing the horn in vain for him to
come to supper, went to look for him, and found
him sound asleep on the hay. He now resolved
to do no more on his boat till haying was over.
Perhaps some of our young readers, who have not
Charlie's mechanical turn, may be a little weary of
these details. We shall therefore tell them, in confidence, why we have been so minute, and also why
we intend to deal a little more- that is, after haying- in these technicalities.




152 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XI.
POMP'S POND.
No matter what year we were at Andover.
There was then, and I suppose is now, in that
staid old town, a certain pond, called Pomp's Pond,
in which grew any quantity of pond lilies, and
some small fish.
These lilies grew in deep water, which was
black, full of sediment and slime, and withal not
very pleasant to go into. These lilies were in
great request among the theological and Phillips
Academy students.
The Academy boys were also very fond of fishing
there; and the only available boat was a wherry,
belonging to a man by the name of Goldsmith,
who, to keep the boys from getting her, kept her
at his house near by.
When any parties wished to hire her, he hauled
her down with his oxen, and, when their time was
up, hauled her back again.
We were as fond of lilies and fishing as the next




POMP'S PON-D.           153
one; but the idea of being tied down to Goldsmith did not agree at all with our notions. We
required a larger liberty, and altogether more searoom. We therefore resolved to build a wherry
of our own, to go and come when we liked, moonlight nights and all. We had at first intended to
make her large enough to take a friend or two
with us, but the difficulty that presented itself at
the outset was, where we should keep her. If wekept her at the pond, all the Academy boys would
be in her from morning till night, and when we
wanted her, they would be off in the pond, or the
oars would be lost or broken, and besides, she
would be too heavy to haul out and hide in the
woods.
As a preliminary, we made a critical survey of
the pond and surroundings, when it appeared that
upon one side was a quagmire, abounding in cattail (cooper's) flags, abutting on some sandy land
covered with a thick growth of pitch-pine and
brush. In view of these circumstances, we resolved to make a wherry only large enough to contain our own person, and so light that we could
carry it on the shoulder, or, by tying the ends of
our neckerchief together, and flinging it over the
stem, drag it through this flag swamp, where no




154 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
one could follow, and hide it in the woods. We
had also ascertained a fact not known to the boys
- that the roots of the flag will support one; but if
you step between, down you go.
What a nice thing it would have been, then, to
have had some one tell us how to make the boat!
3But there was no one, and, like Charlie on Elm
Island, we were flung upon our own resources; nor
was material so plentiful with us as with him:
however, we procured some apple tree limbs, where
Jacob Abbot had been trimming his orchard, for
timbers, and went into Mr. Hidden's carpenter's
shop to, build her.
I shan't tell you how wide she was, but when we
sat in the middle of her, there was very little room
between our body and the sides; and in order to
have her as light as possible, the planks were only
three sixteenths of an inch thick, and the timbers
and knees in proportion. It was necessary to keep
a little ballast in, both to keep her steady, and to
put at one end when we were in the other, and
which, to economize room, consisted of some flat,
thick pieces of iron. In so narrow a craft, which it
required almost the skill of a rope-dancer to keep
on her bottom, it is evident the seat must be low:
it consisted of a board laid across the bottom, with




POMPrS POND.             155
three cleats, three inches thick, nailed across the
under side, to keep it up a little from the bottom;
for though she was perfectly tight, as far. as leakage was concerned, her planks were so thin, as,
after a while, to soak water, which was at length in
a great degree remedied by painting her; she was
as light as an Indian canoe of the same size, which
we, at one time, thought of making, but were prevented from want of bark.
When she was done, and a paddle made, one
evening when there were stars, but no moon, we
carried her on our shoulder to the sandy ground
at the edge of the flag swamp, and dug a hole large
enough to receive her, carrying all the earth dug
out, in a basket, and throwing it into the pond; we
then put her in the hole, and covered the mouth
of it with brush that had lain a long time in the
woods, so that nothing appeared to attract notice.
Great was the surprise of the visitors to the
pond, the next Saturday afternoon, to see a person
in a boat, anchored, and quietly fishing.
Strenuous were the efforts of the Academy students to find where this new craft was kept, increasing in vigor as pond-lily time drew near.
Every nook and corner of the woods was searched,
and every bush peeped under in vain.




156 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
It was equally idle to watch and see where he
landed: all they knew was, that he disappeared
among the flags, and before they could make their
way through the mud and thick mat of bushes
that margined that side of the pond, the boat was
no longer visible, and he would be found. sitting
under a tree, or with his hands full of lilies.
Equally unsuccessful were all attempts to persuade him to let them get into her, a very good
reason for which being the certainty of their upsetting, which the following occurrence will attest.
One sunshiny morning we were strolling with a
friend, who has since made some stir in the world,
along the shores of the pond in quest of berries.
There were a great many lilies in bloom, some of
which he desired to present to a friend.
" Come, K., go and get your boat and pick some
of those lilies."
"' I will if you'll give me your word that you will
remain here, and not follow, to see where I take
her from, or where I put her."
"Well, I will; I'll sit down on this rock, and
won't stir from it till you return. Let me go and
get them," he said, as we brought the little affair to
the beach.
" You can't go in her; you'll upset."




POMP'S POND.            157
"Tell me I can't go in a boat! I was born and
brought up on Cape Cod, and have been used to
boats all my life."
" Can't help where you were born; going in a
thing like that isn't a matter of birthright. I have
a cousin who is a watchmaker, and I used to sleep
with him, but I can't make a watch for all that;
you'd have her bottom up in five minutes."
"Nonsense; take my gun, and let me get the
lilies."
We took the gun and went into the woods; but
it was not long before we heard the cries of,
"Help! help!" and returning to the pond, found
the surface covered with floating lilies, in the midst
of which was a broad-brimmed hat, the boat
bottom up, and our Cape Cod friend clinging
to her.
Those were pleasant days, rainbow-tinted; and
though more sombre hues have since succeeded, I
love to look even on the sky from which they
have faded.
There was a fine set of boys at Phillips Academy then, many of whom have nobly justified
their early promise; while others, the centre of
many loving hearts, have gone to early graves, like
a leaf that falls in June. It is sometimes hard to




158 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
keep back the tears, as I recall those bright faces,
and the pleasant hours we have spent together,
especially in the Sunday school.
Gus Daniels was a splendid boy: how we all
loved him! Well do I remember when he came
to the mansion-house, fresh from home, a shrinking, diffident boy, and was set down at the breakfast-table, with a large company of theological
students, too frightened to ask for anything, and
trying to make himself as small as possible. We
helped the little fellow, endeavored to converse
with and assure him, and at dinnersfound him
again beside us. The next Sunday morning found
him in my class in Sunday school; and, as those
will who are like attempered, we gradually grew
together: how I loved him! and perceiving what
was in him, I began to stimulate and encourage him
to worthy effort; he leaped under it like a generous
horse to the pressure of his rider's knee. Many a
Phillips Academy boy and Harvard student will
remember him, who died just as he was putting on
his harness. But then there was no shadow of the
sepulchre, nor taint of disease, upon him. There
was an innate attractiveness which made it pleasant even to sit in the same room with him,
though no word was spoken, and his lovable and
taking ways won every heart.




POMP'S POND.                159
The lilies were now in full bloom, and he, with
others, had resolved upon a mighty and combined
attempt to find the whereabouts of that mysterious
boat. I was made aware, while quietly fishing, of
the presence of a great number of boys on the
the shore.
"Mr. K.!"
No reply.
"Mr. K.!"
"In Zanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran,
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea."
" Speak louder, Gus."
"  r. K. I"
"O'er Tempe's god-frequented streams
There broods a holy spell,
And still in Greece, the land of dreams,
Heroic memories dwell."'"He's talking to the fishes, Gus: he don't hear."
" He don't want to hear: he suspects what we
are after."
A universal shout, that made the woods ring,
now compelled attention.
" Good afternoon, boys."




160 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Good afternoon, sir."
"This afternoon is so delightful, the place so
quiet and conducive to reverie, I have insensibly
fallen into reflection respecting a subject that has
often been a matter of thought, and as often caused
perplexity."
" What may that be, sir?"
"Whether Vulcan didn't dull his axe when he
split Jupiter's head open."
" We have a matter that has caused us no little
perplexity we want to know where you keep that
boat, and we're not going to leave till we do
know."
"I am glad to see young people, the strength of
the country, have wants; wants are the foundation
of all progress, both in science and the arts."
"' How so, Mr. K.?"
"Because, Gus, when men begin to have wants
they naturally try to gratify them, and the more
they gratify them the more they have, and thus
they better their position. For instance, I wanted
pond lilies, and to catch fish; so I built this boat:
that bettered my position, as you perceive,"pulling up a pout, -" else, instead of sitting here
quietly fishing and reflecting, I should, like you, be
standing on the shore, looking and longing."




POMP'S POND.              161
g Well, we're going to see."
"'It would be very desirable, as it would remove
a great deal of perplexity from your minds, and
restore universal peace and satisfaction."
"Why so? "
"Because you are now very much perplexed in
opinion, and confused in your notions; some of you
think I keep this boat under water, others in the
top of a tree, and a few, that I have an ointment I
got of an Indian, which, being rubbed on her, turns
her into a cat-tail flag; but seeing is believing, and
would at once remove all doubts and reconcile all
conflicting opinions."
c' If you don't let us see, we won't come to your
Sunday school class to-morrow."
"Yes, you will, Gus, because you'll have to; if
you're absent, you'll be marked absent, and Uncle
Sam will know the reason why.
Are ye not marked, ye men of Dalecarlia?'"
0, if we could only find out, wouldn't we hide
her where he couldn't find her!"
"This is a world of perplexities and disappointments; there is one thing I have always wanted to
ascertain, but latterly have quite despaired of it;
therefore I kniow how to sympathize with you."
11




162 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLANDo
"What is that, Mr. K.? "
"Where Hannibal got his vinegar."
" If I live, I mean to ask Uncle Sam; he thinks
he's great on the classics; that'll stick him."
"I'll get you all the lilies you want, boys."
"That is not what we want; we want to have
the boat, and get them ourselves."
"I can appreciate that moral sentiment, Will
Gunton, just as I receive greater enjoyment hauling up this fish," - pulling in a pickerel,-" than
you do from merely looking at me."
"O, ye gods and little fishes, if he is not enough
to provoke a saint."
"'I assent to that opinion likewise, for I vexed
Dr. Woods yesterday."
"In what way?"
"By asking him what the difference was between
whoever and whosoever.'
"Well, if you won't let us have the boat, or do
anything for us, we won't love you as we have
done; Uncle Sam can't mark us for that."
"Yes, you will, Gus, for you can't help it."
" What's the reason we can't help it? "'
"Can you help loving honey? "
"No, sir; because that is natural."
"Is it not as natural to love those who love ls?"




POMP S POND.             163
"t If you loved us, you would gratify us, and let
us have the boat."
" That is just the reason I don't let you have it,
because I know you would be drowned."
"You only say that because you don't want us
to have the boat. You love us, but you won't do
anything for us."
"; No, I never did anything for you! Who writes
your dialogues and declamations, and does a host
of other unmentionable things?  There is not a
great deal of gratitude this year, I suppose, because
it is so dry."
"O, laIr. K., I'll take it all back! I'm  sorry I
said it, and sorrier that I thought it."
" If I don't want you to be drowned, I am disposed to contribute to your enjoyment. I'll take
you all over to the North Parish Pond, where is a
large boat, and sail you to your hearts' content;
that is, if you'll be good boys and go away."
"We are very much obliged to you, but we've
made up our minds to see where you keep that
boat, and we can't give it up; that is what we
came for. There are enough of us to surround the
pond, flag swamp and all. You will have to give
it up, Mr. K. We are resolved to know, if we stay
here all night."




164 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Resolution is a great thing in a young man.
Resolution carried the great Washington across
the Delaware. As I understand it, you are, one
and all, resolved to know where I keep this boat."
"So say we all of us."
"If I will let you see where I put her, will you
be satisfied?"
A unanimous shout testified their assent.
" Well, then, look and see where I put her."
The boatman, after stringing the fish, and hanging them around his neck, placing iron on the
seat and paddle in order to keep them from floating up, pulled the plug out of the bottom of
the boat, the ballast carried her down, and he
swam ashore. There was one little detail of these
proceedings that even their sharp eyes failed to
notice. They did not see him fasten the plug of
the boat to a fishing-line, the other end of which
was attached to the boat, and drop it overboard to
mark the spot. When the little piece of wood,
only two inches long, was in the water, it was no
longer visible from the shore, and would not be
easily found, except by one who had taken the
bearings of some objects on the shore from the
boat itself. The boys on their way home congratulated themselves that Mr. K. had disappointed




POMP S POND.             165
himself as much as them. At any rate, they would
no more be tantalized by witnessing sport which
they could not share. But the Fourth of July
morning there was Mr. K. in the boat, getting
lilies!
"We might as well give it up, boys," said Will
Gunton; "we shall find where he keeps her when
we find where Hannibal got his vinegar."
Upon leaving those parts, we buried her like an
Indian chief, with the paddle and anchor in her,
and no Phillips Academy boy, or prowling theological student, has ever found the grave till this
day, nor ever will.
We haven't forgotten how these boys felt; therefore we would give such outlines that any boy of
mechanical turn, who has-tools, pluck, and patience,
may by their aid build himself a safe and serviceable boat.
Charlie's boat, the dimensions of which will be
given, is rather narrow, but it was all his log would
allow, and he had not yet had experience enough
to deviate from the copy.
But if a boy is to build a boat, he had better
mnake her wider, five feet beam instead of four, to
eighteen of length, or four feet six inches beam
and fourteen feet in length; then she will be stiff,
and need less ballast.




166 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XII.
CHARLIE UNCONSCIOUSLY PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.
THE hay harvest was now secured. From the
additional land cleared on the island, and from the
large field of natural grass on Griffin's Island, Ben
had obtained a noble crop, and also one of rye.
He had a large piece of corn planted on a burn,
also potatoes, flax, and wheat. The garden was in
fine order, and everything wore the appearance of
plenty and comfort. The land, at the burning of
which Fred Williams had so nearly met his death,
he had not planted again, as he intended it for an
orchard, and did not want to wear it out.
On this piece Charlie and his father now set to
work. They cut all the sprouts that had come up
from the stumps, cut down a good many old stubs
that had been left in clearing, picked up all the
brands and pieces of logs, then mowed down all
the fire and pigeon weed, that had come up in
quantities, and when it was dry, set it all on fire.
Ben intended, in the fall, to set out his apple




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   167
trees right among the stumps and ashes, and never
to plough the ground, but to keep the growth of
sprouts and weeds down with the axe and scythe.
When Charlie again resumed work upon his boat,
a new train of thought took possession of his
mind, which, although it troubled him not a little,
led eventually to very important results. It was
this -that notwithstanding he had succeeded thus
far, received the praises of Ben and Sally, and felt
sure he should complete his boat, yet thus far he
had been, and would still be, a copyist; that he
had taken the model of the West Wind from a
mackerel, the model of this boat from the West
Wind, and that all he had originated were the
trifling alterations he had made in the first model.
Resolved to be something better than an imitator,
he set to work, and modelled a boat from a solid
block, three feet long, and entirely different from
the WVest Wind.
" There," said Charlie, "that is mine, at any rate;
andlnow, if I take the shape of that with pieces of
boards and imitate it, it will be my own contrivance."
It now struck him that this was a roundabout way
to build a boat, and that no person could ever get his
living building boats in the way he was doing -
making a model, and then taking the shape of that




168 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
with pieces of boards. There must be some general principles, as there were in framing buildings.
" There's some rule, I know," said he, "and I'll
not strike another clip till I have done my best to
find out what it is. I don't like to work altogether
by guess, and in the dark."
He measured -his boat. She was eighteen feet
long, four feet beam (wide), and eighteen inches
deep.  He then measured from  the keel up to
where the top streak entered the stem, when he
found it was a half more than the depth amidships. lIe then measured from the keel to where
the top streak met the transom. It was a quarter
more than the depth amidships. Thus the rise
from the dead level at the middle was nine inches
at the stem and four and a half at the stern. To
be sure this made the boat curve very much; but it
was the fashion in that day, both in respect to vessels and boats, to give them a great sheer. It was
not without its advantages. They were safer, for
when laden there was more of them out of water.
Charlie had given his boat a rank sheer even for
that day; but, as usual, he had a very good reason
for it. He wanted room inside, and, as he could
have only the width the log would allow, he had
compensated for it by giving her all the length he




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   169
thought prudent. He next endeavored to gain all
the room he could in height at the ends, and this
rise of nine inches forward and four and a half aft
would, when he came to finish, afford him a splendid chance for lockers, in which to put all those
matters that boys want to carry. He measured
her width at the forward floor timber on top. It
was three feet. At the after floor it was three feet
eight inches.
"At any rate," said he, "I have got some guide
for the top. Now for the bottom."
He chalked it out on the barn floor to see what
it looked like, and set down the dimensions in his
book, then measured across the head of the middle
floor timber.
"Whew! " cried he; "it's just half the length
of the beam. Wonder if they're all in that proportion."  By measurement he found they were.
" Now there's a rule for you. The length of the
floor timbers is half the breadth of the beam.
Just half as fast as she narrows above she narrows
below. I've got a water-line."
Down goes that in his book. But, upon reflection, he perceived this was not all he wanted.
"I thought I'd got what I wanted, but I haven't.
This will give me a water-line along the heads of




170 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the floor timbers, but not the shape of the bottom
below; that's what I want. There are no rules
and regulations, after all; you've got to make a
frame, set it up, work a ribband along, and squint at
it, cut and cut, fuss and fuss, till you get it to suit
your eye; or else make a model and go through all
the slavery with pieces of boards that I have in
building this boat thus far. 0, it's an endless job
to build a boat.",
Vexed and disappointed, he flung his rule into
the boat; when the slight irritation had passed by,
he took up his rule again.
He flung it with such violence between the two
garboard planks that it had taken their shape and
that of the sharp riser beside which it fell, and
being new, and the joint stiff, retained it.
" How much that looks like the letter V! That's
quite a different shape from the midship timber."
He put the rule beside this timber, and spread it
apart till the shape corresponded. "How shoal it
is!" holding it up.
The sight put an idea into the head of the keenwitted boy in an instant. He perceived that the
shape of the bottom below the heads of the floor
timbers corresponded exactly to the depth from the
heads of the floor timbers to the keel; he laid a long




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   171
rule across the heads of the middle floor timber, and
measured the distance fiom the centre of that rule to
the keel; it was three inches: he measured the forward one; it was six; the after one; it was six and a
half: she was sharper aft than forward. He found
that there was a regular gradation in the depth front
the middle timber, both forward and aft. He took
a board the length of the floor timber, found the
centre of it, which corresponded to centre of the
keel; from this point he drew a line three inches in
height, then drew two others of the same height at
an inch distance on either side, to represent the
width of the keel: he then drew two lines fiom the
edges of the keel to the ends of the board (fig. 1),
when he found that he had the exact shape of the
middle floor timber, and of course of the bottom
at that place: he then
took the shape of the    /. i
forward one (fig. 2).          2
He had mastered the carpenter's principle of the
dead rise, although he didn't know what to call it.
"Hurrah!" shouted the exultant boy, flinging
the mould up over his head with such force that it
knocked two hens, who were just settling themselves for the night, from the roost, and excited a




172 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
general uproar. "I've got something to start from
now; it's the rise from the keel that shapes the
bottom. When anybody is going to build a boat,
they always know the length, width, and depth,
and from that they can get all the rest. If I am
going to build a boat eighteen feet long, four feet
wide, and eighteen inches deep, she would be at
the forward frame three feet on top; aft, three feet
eight inches; middle, four feet. A line drawn
through these points to the stem and stern gives
me her shape on top; a depth and a half forward
and a depth and a quarter aft gives me her sheer;
half of her width on top gives me her shape at the
heads of the floor timbers. Then all I've got to do
to shape her bottom is, to lay off my rise, making
it greater or less according as I want her full or
sharp, dividing it up on the timbers, till I have
twice as much in the forward floor timber as amidships, and a little more than that aft. I have got
the top and bottom; I can get the shape of the side
between those points by my eye; if I can't I must
be a fool." The forward and after floor timbers
determine the shape of the boat forward and aft; the
timbers after that are V shaped; they do not cross
the keel; and all that is necessary is to have a true
taper to the stem and stern. "I feel kind of satisfied now; there seems to be some foundation, some



CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   173
thing to go upon; it ain't all mixed up: now I
have got all these moulds, it wouldn't be half the
work to timber out another boat of the same
dimensions. Boat-building is real nice work after
you know how; but to build a vessel - that would
be the best. Now I'll go in swimming, then look at
my birds and go and see how my grafts come on."
The next night, as he was busily at work after
supper, getting out his gunwale, a well-known
voice exclaimed, —
" Halloo! What's all this?- steam-box, boatbuilding. I guess Elm Island will be a city
soon."
" O, Joe  I'm so glad to see you."
"You be? I thought you didn't like to have
critics round, when you were at work."
"O 0 yes, I do, you."
"Who timbered out that boat?"
"I did."
"Alon e?"
"Yes, all alone; no soul helped me, or told me
anything."
"Where did you get your moulds?"
"Took them  from the West Wind;" and he
showed Joe the moulds.
"Well, I never should have thought of that




174 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
way. I should like to know how you got those
streaks on, especially the garboards."
Charlie showed him the patterns, and told him
all about it, and how terribly he was puzzled.
"How  long did it take you to get on them
garboards?"
"Two days."
"I should have thought it would have taken you
a week. It is done handsome, my boy," - patting
him on the back; " nobody can better that. But,
life of me, why didn't you make a rule staff, and
take spilings, instead of going to work in such a
roundabout way as that? You couldn't have done
it any better; but you could have done it in a
quarter part the time, and no fuss about it."
" Then, there's a rule?"
"To be sure there is."
"What is a rule staff? What do you mean by
taking spilings?"
"I'll show you by and by."
Charlie then told his fiiend the discovery he had
made in relation to the floor timbers.
"That is what carpenters call the dead rise,
and those middle timbers, that rise but little, are
called dead flats. Now, my little boat-builder, I'll
show you how to take spilings. I suppose you




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   175
wouldn't be willing to take that garboard off again,
because taking the spilings of a garboard is a little
different from the rest."
"Yes, I would; it isn't nailed fast."
"It is a little too narrow, though it is pout on as
well as I could do it."
Joe took one of Charlie's thin boards, planed and
made one end of it as wide as the end of the streak
he was to put on, and cut iL something near the
shape of the stem, and of the length he wanted his
plank to be; this, he told Charlie, was a rule staff.
He then put the end very near to the rabbet at
the stem, and brought it along over the bow, close
to the keel, just as it naturally came, without
twisting sidewise, to the timbers, where he intended to make his butt, and fastened it; then
took the rule, and measured, at fiequent distances,
from the outside edge of the rabbet at the stem, to
the lower edge of the rule staff, till he had gotten
round the sweep; then he measured only at the
timbers.  He made a scratch at every measurement, and chalked down the measure on the rule
staff.
He now took the rule staff and laid it on the
board of which the streak was to be made, and
with the compass set off all these distances, then




176 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF EL3i ISLAND.
took a ribband that would bend edgewise, put it
on the compass pricks, and scratched the whole
length of the plank.
"You see," he said, "that this rule staff, being
bent on, has followed exactly the twist of the timbers; so of course this line of pricks, taken from it,
will do the same, and give the shape of the edge
of the streak; that is all the rule staff does; now
you must measure the width of your plank from
them. I have made these measures at the end
very near together, because I am working for a
very particular body, and I want my work to
compare."
He now steamed the plank and put it on, when
it fayed to a hair.
"Now, Charlie, before I fasten this plank, I
want you to squint along the edge of it."
" I see a bunch on the luff of the bow."
" Now look at the counter."
" It is the same."
"We must take out a little there; I should have
done it when I lined the plank, but I wanted you
to see it; the twist throws the plank up: if you
could take spilings of both edges, it would take
it out."
"How nice that is? Why couldn't I have thought




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.  177
of it? I might by this time have had the boat all
done and in the water. Are ships' planks put on
in this way?"
"Yes, somewhat; but they do not have to be
so particular, except at the fore and after woods:
they line them as crooked as they can, and then
jam them down edgewise with wedges; and you
can't do that with boat plank, but must cut to a
sixteenth of an inch, if you want your work to
look well."
" You are very good, Joe; now all my difficulties
are over; but I'm glad you didn't come before."
"Why so? "
"Because, if you had shown me about the dead
rise, I shouldn't have found it out myself. Joe, I'll
tell you what I'm going to do, if I get this boat off."
"And she don't split in two, you mean."
"If she works well, I'm going to make one out
of my own head, without any model to work
from."
"I tell you what it is, Charlie:' there will be
some staring when you appear out in this craft."
"I guess there will; they all think what
happened to the West Wind sickened and discouraged me; but I reckon they'll find out to the
contrary. I do hope that neither Uncle Isaac, nor
12




178 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELbM ISLAND.
Fred, your Hen, Captain Rhines, nor any of them,
will find it out till I come out. Don't tell; will
you, Joe?"
"You will soon finish her now; you can take a
spruce pole, split it in two with a saw, and it will
make a grand gunwale: that's what they use in
Nova Scotia."
"A spruce pole! I guess I shall. I'll have a nice
piece of oak, planed and rubbed with dog-fish skin.
Do you know what I want to do, Joe?"
" It would be hard guessing; you have so many
projects in your head."
"I want two things, and then I shall be
satisfied."
"' Then you are more easily satisfied than most
folks."
" I want to build a vessel. Think I ever can?"
" Yes; you can learn to build a vessel as well as
a boat; it's pretty'much the same thing on a larger
scale. But what is the other thing?"
" I want to own a piece of land: it's what none
of my folks ever. did, to own a piece of land; a
man must be rich to own a piece of land in
England."
"Well, you can certainly do that, for you have
got money of your own, and can buy wild land




CHIARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   179
for ten or fifteen cents an acre, and clear it
yourself."
"That's what I mean to do, when I get my
money bhck from Fred, and find some place that
just fills my eye, right by. the water. I wouldn't
take the gift of a piece of land that the salt water
didn't wash. Then I must have a brook; I couldn't
live without a brook."
"Nor I either: by the way, we are going to run
to the westward and fish off the cape; I think
very likely I shall run into Portland, and see
John."'"Thenri I'll write himn a letter; he don't know
anything about this boat, for I hadn't thought
much about building her when I saw him last."
Charlie finished his boat, putting four knees to
each of the middle thwarts, and two to both the
forward and after one. lie was resolved this boat
should not split in two. At the bow and stern he
decked her over, and made a splendid locker forward and aft, with doors, and in which he could
put powder, fishing-lines, and whatever he wished
to take with him. Under the middcle thwart he
made a locker, just the shape of a gun, with a door
hung on wire hinges, so as to keep his gun dry.
He was already provided with spars, sails, rudder,




180 TIIE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
and oars, as this boat was just the size of the West
Wind. His paints were all gone, except a little
vermilion that the English captain had given him,
and there was none at the store. Indeed, there
was seldom anything in the form of paint at the
store, except lampblack, and red or yellow ochre,
and they were used only on the inside of houses,
or on vessels, and generally with fish oil. It was a
rare thing that white lead or iinseed oil was found
there, it being so little called for. Captain Rhines's
house was the only one in the place that was
painted outside. IHe and some others had one
room painted lead-color; the general custom being
to keep the walls and floors white, and scour them.
But Charlie was determined to have paint for this
boat, and sent to Portland by Joe for both paint
and oil.
The iron-work of the other boat was suitable for
this, and she was now calked and all done except
painting. Charlie had oiled the planks to keep
them  from renting, as he had no paint to prime
her. How he longed for that paint to come! Indeed, he thought so much about it, that none of
his usual sources of enjoyment seemed to afford
him any gratification, or to occupy his thoughts.
The flowers were passed by unheeded, the song of




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THIE FUTURE.   181
birds won no regard, and even the baby received
slight attention. He enjoyed himself most when
occupied about that which was in some way connected with the boat. He passed a good many
moments in thinking how he should paint her.
As she was altogether too precious to lie aground
even in the quiet harbor of Elm Island, he prepared a mooring for her. He borrowed Uncle
Sam's drill, and made a round hole in a large flat
rock, then dug up a small tree by the roots, cut it
off about fifteen feet from the roots, removed the
bark, shaved the trunk smooth, ran it through the
hole in the rock, till the roots prevented it from
going farther, and then put it off in the harbor.
Over this pole, standing upright in the water, he
slipped an oak plank, which floated on the water,
and travelled around the pole as the wind veered,
and slipped up and down on it as the tide rose and
fell. To this traveller he fastened a rope, with an
eye-splice in it to slip over the boat's stem, and
then he could go to her in the Twilight.
When all these preparations were made, he
began to think of a name. He didn't like to give
her the name of the old boat, because he thought
she had been unlucky, and it would revive unpleasant memories.




182 THEE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"There's only one thing about her I should like
otherwise," said he. " I wish she was pink-sterned
and  lap-streaked.  These  square  sterns look
chopped off to me. I think the eye requires that
both ends should be alike. I wonder how a fish
would look with a square stern? or a tree with a
square top?  Well, I'll build another, when I shan't
be tied to the dimensions of a log, and can h ve
her wider and deeper, with plenty of room to knock
about in. This boat wlll be like old Captain
Scott's boat, in Halifax, that was so small and full
of trumpery, he said there wasn't room enough in
her to swear. Well, I don't want to swear. I
think it's real mean. So there'll be room enough
for me."
All at once he thought of something to divert
attention and occupy his leisure time, which was,
to study surveying. The science of angles was
congenial to his mechanical tastes, and he was
soon so absorbed in the pursuit as well nigh to
forget the paint, for which he had been longing.
The evenings were growing longer, and he had a
competent instructor in Ben. Ben also had another scholar, Seth Warren, who had come over
to the island to study navigation.
"Mother," said Charlie, one night, as they were




CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   183
milking, " do you suppose there will ever be a vessel built in this bay?"
"I don't know. Not in my day, I guess."
"Why not, mother?  Didn't father build the
Ark on this island? and couldn't he, and Captain
Rhines, and Uncle Isaac build a vessel if they had
a mind to?"
"Why, Charlie, the people here have hardly got
their land cleared up, and got to living themselves.
There are no carpenters but Joe Griffin and Robert
Y~elf, no blacksmith but Peter Brock, and he's
worn out. Besides, there's nothing for a vessel to
do, except to carry wood tor Salem or Boston, or to
fish. Your father and Captain Rhines had rather
put their money into a vessel with Mr. Welch."'Mother, carpenters and blacksmiths go wherever there is work. I'm sure there's lumber and
spars enough here, and vessels come here to load.
I don't see why a vessel couldn't be built here,
where there's timber to build her, and lumber to
load her, and take it to the West Indies, and get
molasses and sugar to sell in Boston or Portland,
just as Captain Rhines did the cargo of the Congress. I heard him say he had half a mind to
keep her, load, and run her."
"I never saw such a boy as you are, Charlie!




184 THE YOU1NG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
You're always planning out something. What in
the world put this in your head, just now? "
"Because I was thinking what a sight of ducks,
chickens, geese, and turkeys there are around this
barn. Why, you can't step, hardly, without treading on a hen or a duck! I can't hardly pitch a
fork full of hay off the mow without disturbing a
hen's nest! And only see the beets, onions, and
potatoes there are! I was thinking, if there was
only some vessel here going to the West Indies,
what a slap you and I could make by sending a
venture, as we did in the Ark! Why, only think
how  much butter you- could send! Then, I
thought, here is Seth Warren, learning navigation.
He ought to have a vessel built for him here,
instead of going to Wiscasset; and Joe Griffin and
Robert Yelf ought to help build her, instead of
going out of town to work, as they often do."' "Well, Charlie, you were born twenty-five or
thirty years too soon! Such things may do to
talk about, but they can't be-done in the woods, in
a new country."
"Captain Rhines was born and brought up in
the woods; but he's been all over the world, for
all that."
"Well, Charlie, you'd better leave alone build



CHARLIE PREFIGURES THE FUTURE.   185
ing castles in the air, and take that calf away.
He's biting the cow's teats all to pieces."
I'I tell you, mother, there will be a vessel built
in this bay before five years. You mark my words
for it."
" Perhaps there may - a wood-coaster."
"No; a vessel to go to the West Indies."
"Well, when I see it, I'll believe it, and I'll send
a venture in her."




186 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XIII.
BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.
WHEN John Rhines went into the blacksmith's
shop, he found two other boys there, apprentices,
who had been at work some time.  They all
boarded with the master, as was the custom at
that day.
It was customary for the boys to do some chores
about the house, cut and bring in the wood, and on
Monday mornings, the water for the washing. It
was also the wont of all mechanics, at eleven and
four o'clock, to have a glass of liquor, and most of
them had a luncheon - crackers and salt fish.
Then the men on the roofs came down from their
ladders, carpenters laid aside their axes, and masons their trowels, and all set down to " wet their
eye," as they called it. Thus apprentices were
early initiated into the practice of dram-drinking.
The names of these boys -both of whom were
older than John, and one of them nearly out of his
time- were Sam  Glacier and William  Lewis.




BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.  187
The younger of these, Sam Glacier, had sprung
from a very poor, low family, was of a jealous,
suspicious disposition, didn't love work, wvas careless, and rather slow to learn.
Sam was very glad when Rhines came, because
he knew that the chores that he had been compelled to do would devolve upon Rhines; that he
should be put behind the anvil, and Rhines would
have to blow and strike for him. But in other respects he did not like John. Indeed, it was impossible that there could be any friendship between
two natures so entirely opposite. Sam despised
John because he didn't swear, andl would work
whether Mr. Starrett was in the shop or not.
John despised Sam  because he did swear, and
would sit on the anvil whenever his master's back
was turned.  Sam  despised John because he
knelt down and said his prayers when he went
to bed, and wouldn't drink liquor at eleven and
four o'clock. John despised Sam because he lay
down just like a hog.
Sam spent his Sundays strolling about the
wharves, sailing in boats, or getting together other
boys, and spending the time in smoking and cardplaying, and disliked John because he would not
go with him, and do as he did. John had not




188 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
been in the shop a month before Sam saw that Mr.
Starrett liked him a great deal better than himself,
and didn't hesitate to show it.
Sam, imputing this to the fact that John was the
son of a rich and he of a poor man, was embittered
against both -him and his master. It was not,
however, for any such reason. Mr. Starrett was a
rugged, driving, resolute, generous-hearted man.
Indeed, he was something of the turn of Captain
Rhines, whom he considered one of the finest of
men.
He wanted boys to work, and work hard, as he
did himself; but he fed them well, treated them
kindly, did all in his power to put them ahead as
fast as they developed capacity, and, when the
work permitted, gave them a few hours to themselves, and would let them have iron and coal to
do any little job, and make any little thing to sell
to boys or the neighbors.
The facts in the matter were just these: If Mr.
Starrett sent Sam on board a vessel to back out
bolts, or to drive them in, or to take the measure of
anything, he would be gone at least twice as long
as was needful, and very likely come back with the
wrong dimensions; and after the work was done, it
would all have to be done over again, and perhaps




BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.  189
the vessel all ready for sea exbcept that. He would
neglect to fore-lock a bolt. It would draw in a
gale of wind, and cause serious damage. But if
he sent John, it was all done well, and in the shortest time. There was another reason. He forged a
great many anchors for fishermen, which was heavy
work, and required a great deal of striking with a
large sledge; and John always struck with a good
will, was never tired, and would draw the iron
more at one blow than Sam, or even Lewis, at two.
No wonder then that Mr. Starrett liked John best,
put him ahead, and gave him jobs, that, in the
usual course of things, belonged to Sam. It was
just the same at the anvil as everywhere else.
The boy that does the best for his employer does
the best for himself.
But the matter did not stop even here. It was
the same in the house. Mrs. Starrett and Betty,
the maid, conceived the strongest liking for John,
and for equally substantial reasons as his master.
If asked to do anything, he did it willingly, and on
this very account was more lightly taxed.
"I hate to ask John to wait on me," said Mrs.
Starrett, "because he does it so willingly; for I
know he works hard, and I had rather do it mysself."




190 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"He's a gentleman, every inch of him," replied
Betty. "He-wasn't brought up on -a dunghill, -
that's plain to be seen. I often bring water myself
rather than ask him. But as for that Glacier, I
made him wait on me by inches, he was so hoggish
and lazy. If he gave me any of his impudence, I
went straight to his master with the tale."
It chanced one day that John was absent at
dinner-time, his master having sent him to the
wharf. A  plate was set on for Sam  that was
cracked, and had a piece taken out of the edge.
He was so put out about it that he went off without his dinner.
Mrs. Starrett told Betty to put it on for' John
when he came.
"I'll do no such thing! I'll not put him below
that growling creature!"
"Do as I tell you, Betty."
When John came in, he sat down and ate his
dinner, neither noticing nor caring whether the
plate was cracked or not.
" There," said Mrs. Starrett, "' what do you think
of that?"
"That is just what I should expect," said M/r.
*Starrett, who happened to be in the house. "If
you want a boy that's difficult, always growling,




BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.  191
never satisfied, and all the time afraid he shall be
imposed upon, get one that never had any bringing
up, nor half enough to eat at home."
There was another circumstance that tended to
foster, even in the mind of Lewis, who was a very
different boy from Glacier, a dislike to John; they
were bound to serve a regular apprenticeship, John
was not; and it was plain to see, that with his
ambition and capacity he would get the trade and
be working for wages long before they were out
of their time.
The boys had but very little leisure; men worked
then upon no ten-hour system, but from sun to
sun.
Ship-carpenters worked till there was just light
enough left to see to pick up their tools; and blacksmiths, during short days in winter, worked in the
evenings. When they happened to have any leisure, Lewis, with Glacier and others, pitched quoits,
jumped, and wrestled, or played pull-up, or ball, on
a green plat, behind the shop. John was not
invited to go with them; they considered him
strait-laced, stuck up, and longed to take him'
down a peg or two.
One day, as they were going down a descending
piece of ground, on their way to dinner, Lewis




192 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
proposed to Glacier to trip him up.  Glacier accordingly thrust his foot between John's legs,
thinking to trip and throw him down hill; but he
did not accomplish his purpose. John then, putting
one hand on his shoulder, apparently with very
little effort, sent him head foremost down the hill,
and skinned hlis nose and chin in the fall. John was
so quiet, free from all pretensions, amiable in his
disposition, didn't swear, said his prayers, and went
to meeting, that although they knew his strength,
they thought it impossible for him to know anything about wrestling or scuffling; accordingly, after
work that evening, they invited him to go behind
the shop and wrestle.
"You can throw him, Sam; if you can't, I can,"
said Lewis; "he is strong to strike with a sledge;
but he don't know anything about wrestling."
Never were boys more mistaken: he flung
Glacier and Lewis the moment he took hold of
them, and every apprentice they could bring; and
the worst of it was, he didnri't seem t6 think it
worth crowing over, or that he had found worthy
antagonists. Mr. Starrett was mightily pleased
when it came to his ears.
"I've twigged their motions," he said; " they've
been itching this four weeks to impose upon John,




BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.  193
just because he's a better boy than they are; they've
found out now it's better to let a sleeping dog
alone; better not meddle with anybody that's got
any Rhines blood in them. I wonder what they
would think of Ben, or this boy's grandfather. 0,
he was an awful strong man. I remember him
when I was a small boy; he looked to me like a
tree walking about."
A short time after this circumstance, Mr. Starrett said to Glacier, -
" Sam, you've been with me more than two years.
I've done my best to put you forward and learn
you; but you are lazy and careless, and don't care
whether you learn or not. Rhines has learned
more in four months than you have in the whole
two years. I shall now put him behind the anvil,
and you must blow and strike for him."
Sam was grouty, and did all in his power to
plague John, and spoil his work. One day, when
John was at work upon something where it was
necessary to be accurate, he irritated him beyond
the limits of forbearance.
"Glacier," said John, "if you keep on striking
after I make the signal to stop, and if, when you
take anything out of the fire to weld, you hold it
askew, and don't keep it in its place till it's stuck,
13




194 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLA&ND.
I'll lay you across this anvil, and put the hammer
handle on you till you see stars."
This settled the matter. Sam did very well after
that, till he ran away, and a better boy came in his
place. John now went on apace.
Just before noon, one day, he was strapping a
dead-eye, when Joe Griffin came into the shop. If
ever anybody received a hearty welcome, Joe did
from John.
" How are father and mother?"
"First rate; they are all well at home, and on the
island. Uncle Isaac and our Henry are with me
in the schooner," replied Joe, by way of summing up.
"What is Charlie doing?"
"O, Charlie, he's in kingdom come; he's put the
nub on now."
"Do tell; what is it?
" You mustn't mention it aboard the schooner;
but he has taken moulds from the old boat that
you and he split in two, timbered out and planked
up a boat of the same size, and I'm going to get
the paint to paint her; then he's coming out, I tell
you; and here's a letter from him."
"0, how I wish I could be there, to go with
him! but the boy time, with Charlie and me, is




BETTER LET SLEEPING DOGS ALONE.  1.95
about over; we have got to put our bones to it
now. How is Fred Williams getting along?"'"First rate; has all the fish he can make, and
buys a good many. So they've put you behind
the anvil, and set you to strapping dead-eyes.
Pretty good job for a boy who has worked no
longer than you have; they don't set bunglers to
strapping dead-eyes."
It was now twelve o'clock; Mr. Starrett invited
Joe to dinner, and gave John the afternoon to
spend with his friend, and they went on board the
Perseverance. John sat up half the night to make
an anchor for Charlie's boat, to send by Joe; he
also made some iron bow pins for Uncle Isaac and
Ben, and an eel spear for his father.




196 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XIV.
VICTORY AT LAST.
THE sun had nearly reached the meridian, and
the winds due north, was of moderate strength; the
time, the last week of August.
Henry Griffin had concluded to stay at home for
one trip, and was fishing with San IHadlock, in a
canoe, about three miles to the southward of Elm
Island. Tempted by the fineness of the day, a
large number of the neighbors were fishing near
them.  Among the rest, Uncle Sam, Captain
Rhines, and Uncle Isaac, all in Captain Rhines's
big canoe.
"What's that, Hen, coming down the bay?"
" Whereabouts? "
"Why, off the sou'west pint of Elm Island."
"A canoe."
"It don't look like a canoe to me."
In a short time Sam said, —
"That's not a canoe; she's got two sails, and is
coming down'wing and wing;' there's no canoe
round here with two sails."




VICTORY AT LAST.           197
Henry now viewed the strange craft more narrowly as she came nearer. At length he said, -
"That's not a canoe; she's painted, and has got
a bowsprit. I know what it is. Charlie has built
another boat, and he's showing off in her. That's
it; I know it is. Good on his head."
" I thought he'd give up after the other one split
in two."
"Give up! Them words ain't in his dictionary. If
you want Charlie to do a thing, just trig the wheels,
and tell him he can't. I know that's it, for I've
suspected it all along."
"What made you suspect it?"
"A good many things. In the first place, I
overheard him say to John, when he came out of
the water, the day they got spilt,' If I live, I'll build
a boat that won't split in two;' and I know he
never gives up anything. Another thing, he and I
have always been very thick: whenever we've met,
he has always urged me to come over to the island;
but this summer he has never asked me once.
Then the last time we were at Portland, there was
some privacy going on between John and Joe,
that they didn't mean I should know; there was a
great long box that went to Elm Island. I know
there was paint in it by the smell, and it was paint




198 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELLM ISLAND.
for that boat; that's what it was, though I don't
see what it was so long for."
The strange craft was now in full view, coming
down before the wind and tide, like a race horse.
There was evidently but one person in her, and he
was hidden by the sails. Presently the- helmsman
altered his course a little, and jibing the mainsail,
exposed himself to view.
" It's Charlie," cried Henry.  "0, ain't he a
happy boy this minute? See how straight he sits;
and isn't she a beauty? How long she is i tremendous long!"
"How handsome she's painted! " said Sam. "I
wish he would come here."
" He will; he's going alongside of Captain Rhines,
and then he'll come here."
But, contrary to Henry's opinion, Charlie kept to
leeward of the whole fleet of canoes, and stood
right out to sea. He then hauled his wind, and
brought both his sails on one side, Sam said,'"to
show himnse~f/."
4 Yes," was the reply; "and he'll be coming
back soon, to show what the boeat can do. Here
he comes, Sam," shouted Henry.
After running out to sea about half a mile,
Charlle hauled aft his sheets, set his jib, and brought
her on a wind.




VICTORY AT LAST.           199
"Look there, Hen! See her go right straight
to windward! That jib is what takes my eye!"
"How is he going to handle three sails alone,
when he tacks, I should like to know?"
"He's got the jib-sheets to lead aft to where he
sits. I've often seen that done."
"I think it's queer that our Joe, Captain Rhines,
and Uncle Isaac, who can do anything they are a
mind to, should never have built a boat, but always
went- about in these dug-outs,- enough to wear a
man's life out to pull'em."
"What in the world is he doing now, Hen?
He's hauled down his jib, and taken in his mainsail."
"Hle's going to show what she'll do under a
foresail."
"Look! He's putting his helm down! If she'll
go about in this chop of a sea, without help from
an oar, under a foresail, she'll do more than I think
she will."
" There, she's about, by jingo!"
"The Perseverance couldn't beat that, Hen, and
she carries sail well, too; but then he's got a good
deal of ballast in her, by the looks."
"She is so crooked, and there is so much of
her out of water, that he can carry'sail hard on




200 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
her. Sam, I'll have that boat, if it costs all I've
earned this summer to buy her."
"There goes up his mainsail and jib! He has
let us see what she will do."
"Yes, he knows very well that Captain Rhines,
and we, and Uncle Isaac are watching him."
"The captain will buy that boat, Hen. She'll
just take his fancy. What a nice thing she would
be for him when he wants to run over to see'Ben!"
" No, he won't, Sam; for we will follow Charlie
home, and if money will buy her, I'll have her."
"I don't believe he'll sell her, at any rate till he
has shown her round a little. I'm sure I wouldn't
if I had a boat like that. I guess you and Captain
Rhines will both have to wait till she's an old story.
He'll want John and Fred to have a sail in her
before he sells her."
Charlie soon beat up alongside Captain Rhines,
then came alongside Henry. When he was within
a few yards, he hauled aft his main-sheet, flowed
his fore-sheet, hauled his jib to windward, put his
tiller hard down in the notch-board, and she lay to,
just like a vessel, while he leaned over the gunwale, and talked with Henry and Sam. When he
had shown them how she would lie to, Henry




VICTORY AT LAST.           201
flung him a rope, and the boat being made fast to
the canoe, they had an opportunity to inspect he:.
"Charlie, will you sell this boat?" asked Henry.
"I don't know. I guess not."
"Yes, you will, to me."
Charlie's taste had become somewhat chastened
since he made the Twilight and West Wind.
They rejoiced in painted ports, and all varieties
of stripes and colors, but this boat was quite in
contrast. She was bright-green to the water-line,
white above, with a narrow vermilion bead on top.
Inside, she was a straw-color up to the rising,
above that blue - not a lead-color, made by mixing
white lead and lampblack- but blue. The spars
were white, the blades of the oars green, the rest
white.
" Charlie, who told you how to build this boat? "
"Nobody. After I had her almost done, Joe
told me how to take spilings."
"' IWings of the Moirning,'" said Henry, looking
at the stern. "What a singular name! What
made you think of that name, Charlie?"
"I'll tell you, IHenry. I had been thinking for
some time what I should call her, and one morning I went out just at sunrise. I stood on the
door-stone, and looked off in the bay. The water




202 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
was as smooth as glass. There was an eagle sitting
on the edge of his nest on the big pine. They are
not shy of me at all, for I am very often up in the
tree, and feed them. By and by he pitched off,
and came sailing along slowly, moving his great
wings, just clearing the ridge-pole of the house, and
close to me. While I watched him, this came
right into my head. I couldn't get it out;'so I put
it on the boat."
"Charlie, what was in that long box we brought
down in the schooner? "
"Paint to paint this boat, and putty and oil."
"'I thought so. But what was the need of so
long a box? "
"To hold this," holding up the anchor. "John
made it, and for this boat, while you were there."
The canoes now began to run in. Charlie made
sail, and soon left them all astern, tugging away at
their oars against wind and ebb tide. He had
been at home a long time, - indeed, it was after
supper,- when Henry and Sam  came into the
cove.
"Charlie," said Henry, "I shall never pull a
canoe any more. I must have that boat, for I anm
going to fish a good deal this fall. What will you
take for her?"




VICTORY AT LAST.           203
"I don't want to sell her. I haven't hardly been
in her myself."
"Well, there's time enough to talk about that."
"Come to the house, and get some supper. You
won't go from here to-night."
After supper, Henry repeated his request for the
boat, adding, " You don't want her, Charlie. You
only built her to see what you could do, and can
build another. You are no fisherman; but I want
her to catch fish in to sell to Isaac."
"Yes, I do want her," replied Charlie. "If I
want to go anywhere, I must go by boat; for we
are on an island, six miles from the main, and if I
sell this boat, I must go in a canoe. I don't like to
pull a canoe any better than you do."
"But it's different with you. You can go to the
main on pleasant days, and, if you are obliged
to go in rough weather, you can take the Perseverance; while I go out fishing in the morning,
when perhaps it is as pleasant as can be; before
night it comes on to blow, and I've got to pull in,
or go to sea. You know old Uncle Jackson was
blown  ofI last winter, and never heard from;
whereas, in that boat, with reefed sails, I could
beat in any time. It might be a matter of life and
death with me. Come, Charlie, let me have her



204 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
that's a good fellow,! You can build  another.
I'll give you a dollar a foot for her."
That was a tremendous price in those days, when
corn was four shillings a bushel, pork six cents a
pound in the round hog; when the best of men, in
haying-time, got only a dollar a day, and at other
times could be hired for fifty or seventy-five cents.
Besides, it must be remembered that Charlie had
built this boat on rainy days, and at hours outside
the regular day's work.
"I'll give you a dollar a foot," continued Henry,
"just for the boat. You may take everything out
of her -sails, spars, anchor, and cable. The sails
are larger than I want, for I don't want to be
bothered with reefing in cold weather. I can get
Joe to cut and make sails for me. He's a capital
hand, I can tell you."
"The truth is, Henry, I've built this boat by
hard knocks. I've got up as soon as I could see to
work on her, and have worked after I had done a
hard day's work, and was tired. I have puzzled
over her till my brains fairly ached, and on that
account think more of her. To-day is the first
time I've ever been out of the harbor in her, and I
don't feel as if I could part with her."
"I'll give you nine shillings a foot for her."




VICTORY AT LAST.           205
"Sell her, Charlie," said Ben. "Let him have
her."
L" I would, Charlie," said Sally. "Ile needs her,
and you can build another, as he says. He has
offered you such a great price, too!"
But Charlie remained firm. Henry was about
to give up the matter, when he said, "Henry, I
don't want you to think I am holding off to make
you bid up. You offered me all the boat was
worth when you offered a dollar a foot. I'll do
this with you: I'll sell her to you, the bare hull, to
deliver the first day'of October, at a dollar a foot.
I shan't take any more, and I won't part with her
till then."
"I'll do it, Charlie; and when Joe comes in, I'll
go another trip with him."
"I don't see," said Ben, after the boys had gone
to bed, "what makes Charlie so loath to sell that
boat. I should think he would be proud to have
an offer for her so quick. He likes Henry, too,
and I have always thought he was rather too willing to put himself out for other folks. Besides, he
has spent some money for tools and paint, and that
would make him all whole again."
"I'm  sure I don't think it at all strange he is
loath to sell her. Any one thinks a great deal of




206 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the first things they make. I've got a pair of
clouded stockings in the chest of drawers. I spun
the yarn and knit them when I was eight and a
half years old, and had to stand on a plank to
reach the wheel, and I don't think Henry Griffin or
anybody else could buy them."
"I don't believe but there's some other reason."
"Perhaps so."
"It may be that he wants to go off, and have a
sail and a grand time with Fred somewhere, as
they did before."
"I shouldn't wonder."
"Perhaps he's got some word from John, by Joe
Griffin, that he's coming home, and he's keeping
her for that."
"If he'd heard anything of that kind, he
would have told us the first thing."
"Well, whatever the reason is, he'll tell you
when he gets ready."
But he didn't tell Sally, nor did he tell the boys
after they had gone to bed that night, but chose a
very different confidant.




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.       207
CHAPTER XV.
THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.
THE next morning, as they were chatting after
breakfast, the door opened, and in walked Captain
Rhines.
" Why, fhther," cried Ben, overjoyed, "'you took
an early start."
" I had pressing business."
"It is an age since you have been here. I'm
real glad to see you," said Sally; "I thought you
had forgotten us. I'll have some breakfast on the
table in a few moments."
" Charlie, I want to buy that boat. I hailed you
after you pulled away yesterday; but you didn't
hear meo We had a hard pull yesterday, against
the wind and tide; I told Isaac and Sam, we had
pulled canoes about long enough, and it was time
we had some easier way of getting back and
forth."
"You're too late, Captain Rhines," said Henry.
"I've bought her."




208 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"You have? Then, Charlie, you must build another for me, right off, just like her."
"I will do that, sir, for I have got stuff enough
to make the keel, stern, and transom, all sawed out,
and crooks for timbers. I'll begin to-morrow; that
is, if father can spare me."
"I'll paint her, and make the spars and sails.
Uncle Isaac wants you to build him one: he would
build one himself, but he can't get the time. He
expects to go over to Wiscasset, to work on spars,
and is driving on to get his work at home done."
"Does he want her the same dimensions as this
one?"
"Yes; but he is in no hurry for her; you'll have
boats enough to build, Charlie; so you had better
lay out for it."
"I shouldn't dare to build a boat for Uncle
Isaac."
" Why not? "
"Because, he's such a neat workman himself, I'm
afraid I shouldn't suit him."
"I'll risk you; you'll suit him to a hair, and'twill be a feather in your cap to work for him."
Such a thing as a wood-shed did not exist at
Elm Island; indeed, there was not the necessity
then for many things that are now really neces



THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.      209
sary. There were always plenty of dry limbs and
trunks of trees in the woods to start the fire with,
and the tremendous heat generated in one of those
old fireplaces (with a log four feet long and three
feet thick, a back-stick on that half the size, and a
fore-stick eight feet long), would burn green red
oak, and even black ash, when once fairly under
way. When dry wood was wanted, Ben or Charlie
would go into the woods and soon find a tall pine
which had been dead for years, the bark all fallen
off, and nearly all the limbs, and streaked with
pitch, which had exuded and hardened in the sun
on the outside. Laid low by the axe, the top
would be broken into many pieces, thus rendering
the cutting up a light labor. To be sure, when
hauled to the door, it lay in summer exposed to all
the rains, and in winter half buried in snow. But
what did that matter. When night came, Charlie
filled the great oven - which, being in the back, was
always nearly hot enough to bake - with this pine,
and great clefts of green beech, which in the course
of the night would get warm, and a little dry on
the outside. In the morning there would be a
bushel of live coals on the hearth, the remains of
the old log. Raking them forward, on go the
green log and back-stick, the green fore-stick, dry
14




210 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
pine, half pitch, on top of the glowing coals, top of
that the clefts of beech, and perhaps a dry bush
crowns the summit.
A few waves of a hemlock broom — whew I up
goes a column of spiral flame roaring up the
chimney.
- Away goes Charlie to feed the cattle. Thus you
see a wood-shed was very far from  being felt a
necessity on Elm Island, where many other things,
more needed, had hitherto been lacking. But now,
among other added comforts, Ben thought it would
be well to have one: it would save digging the wood
out of the snow, and thus bringing water and snow
into the house, and also be convenient for many
purposes. Another consideration was, they would
soon need a workshop, as the space in the barn
now devNoted to that purpose would be needed for
hay; neither did he like to haive shavings around
the barn, and there was leisure before thlie fll
harvest to build it. He did not wrish to interfere
with Charlie's boat-building, as he saw he w1ras very
much pleased withll tlhe idea of building a boat for
Captain iRhines. It was an excellent opportunity
for this good boy, who was always ready to assist
everybody else, to do something for himself.
Charlie, as our readers well know, was never




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.          211
better pleased than when  he could plan sonme
pleasant surprise for his adopted parents. Ben,
therefore, determined to surprise Charlie; he resolved to build the shed a story and a half in
height, to admit of having a corn-house inn a portion of the upper story. Cor1n-houses were set up
on logs, or stone posts, three fet from the ground,
and detached friom all other buildings, on account
of rats; but there was no objection to raking it in
the shed, there, as neither rats nor mice had found
their way to Elm Island.
While Charlie was busily at work in the daytime upon his boat, and in evenings studying surveying, Ben had got hlis tihber from the woods for
the filame, and hauled it to the door. l-ie then
hired a man by the name of Danforth Eaton, who
was a shingcle weaver, and a good broadaxe man,
to help him.
Toogether they sawed, up the shingle bolts, and
then Ben set Eaton at work shaving shingles,
while he hewed the timber. To Ben, who, sincehe had lived on the island, had become an excellent axe man, it was mere sport to hsw pine
timber: with his heavy axe and enormous strength,
striking right down through, every clip he sliced
off the chips almost as fast as he could walk, and
soon began to frame it.




212 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
It was pretty lively times on Elm Island now:
in the barn Charlie was building a boat; under a
rude shelter, made by setting four poles in the
ground, and placing some boards on them, Eaton,
who was a splendid shingle weaver, was shaving
shingles; - I can't tell you why shingle makers are
called weavers, unless it is on account of the motion of their bodies back and forth when shaving;- and Ben mortising and boring the timber.
Charlie's boat grew with great rapidity; for
besides knowing just how to go to work, he had
the command of his whole time, and moreover, the
boat being just like the other, had all his moulds
ready. On rainy days, Ben and Eaton sawed out
his planks, helped him get out his timbers, and put
on his plank.
Charlie had been so completely absorbed in his
boat, that he paid but very little attention to what
his father and Danforth were doing: to be sure he
glanced at their work as he passed back and forth
from the barn to the house; noticed that Danforth
had done making shingles, and was making clapboards, and that the timber was of great length;
but supposed his father had hewn his sticks of
double length, intending to cut them up. But a
few days after, looking at a sill that was finished, he




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.       213
perceived by the mortises that it was intended to
be used the whole length: he put on his rule and.
found it was fifty feet, and the cross-sill was
twenty-five.
"Why, father, are you going to have a shed as
big as all this? You won't need a quarter part of
this space."
"You know I'm a big fellow: I want considerable room to turn round in; almost as much as a
ship wants to go about."
"But you'll not want half of this."
" You know I want a corn-house overhead, and
if we finish the rooms in the chamber of the house,
your mother would like to have some rough place
for her spinning and weaving in the summer, and
to keep her flax and wool in; and then what a
handy place it would be to keep ploughs and
harrows, the Twilight, my canoe, and their sails,
when we want to haul them up in the fall! O,
there's always enough to put in such a place;
besides, you know I shall want a cider-house."
Charlie burst into a roar of laughter.
"A cider-house! and the orchard ain't planted
yet."
"Well, the ground is cleared for it, and the
chamber will be a nice place for Sally to dry
apples."




214 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Yes, when we get them."
"We shall get them; I like to look ahead."
The frame was raised and covered, and Ben
parted off twenty-five feet fiom the end farthest
fiom  the house, and laid a plank floor in it; the
other half had no floor. After laying the floor
overhead, in that part next to the house, he parted
off the space for the corn-chaimber, and made stairs
to go up to it.
The Perseverance had come in, and was landing
fish at Isaac's wharf. Ben told Charlie he was
going to Wiseasset in her, to get some nails to put
on the clapboards and shingles; but when he
came back, he not only brought nails, but bricks,
lime, glass, putty, and Uncle Sam Elwell, whom
he set to building a chimney and fireplace in the
farther end of the shed, where he had laid'a plank
floor.
Charlie was now thoronghly mystified, and his
curiosity greatly excited. When Uncle Sam had
laid the foundation, he proceeded to make a fireplace, and by the side of it built an arch, and set in
it a kettle, which Ben had brought with him.
"Fiather," asked Charlie, "what is the fireplace
and the kettle for?"
"Well, it is very handy to have a fire; you often
want to use such a place late in the fall."




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.       215
c"I should have thought you would have made
the wood-shed at this end, and put this place
nearer the house; it would have been handier for
mother."
"Your mother will want to go into the woodshed ten times where she will want to come in
here once."
"But what is the kettle for?".
"'I'm sure I shouldn't think you would ask such
a question as that: wouldn't it be very handy in
the spring, when the sap was running very fast
and driving us, to have a place where Sally could
boil some on a pinch; and wouldn't it be nice for
heating water to scald a hog?"
"Yes, I suppose it would."
But Charlie was far from satisfied; he noticed
that his father didn't say directly that the room
was for such and such purposes, only asked if it
wouldn't be suitable and convenient: he was more
puzzled than ever.
"Mother, what is father laying a floor, building
a fireplace, and setting a kettle in the wood-shed
for? and he's going to put in glass windows, for
he's got glass and putty."
"I'm sure I don't know any more than you do:
he don't tell me."




216 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"I expect he's fixing it for Sally and Joe to go
to housekeeping in."
" I'm sure he ain't," replied Sally. "I don't expect to have half so good a place as that. I expect
to go into a log house or a brush camp."
Sally and Joe had been engaged a long time.
Joe had been saving up money, and so had Sally.
He had bought a piece of wild land, and they were
expecting to begin as Ben and his wife had. Sally
was not hired. She was a cousin to Ben on his
mother's side, and was making it her home there,
while getting ready to be married. A right smart
Yankee girl was Sally Merrithew. She could wash,
iron, bake, brew, card, spin, and weave. A noble
helpmeet for a young man who had to make his
way in the world.
Sally Merrithew had six sheep, which her father
bad given her in the spring. Ben put them on
Griffin's Island to pasture, and when he sheared his
sheep, sheared them for her. She had spun and
was weaving the wool into blankets. She had also
bought linen yarn, which she was scouring, and
meant to make sheets of. She calculated to help
Mrs. Rhines enough to pay her board, and was not
very particular whether she did more or not.
They bleached linen, washed, and sang together,




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.       217
with the bobolinks and robins at the brook, and
had the best times imaginable.
Aunt Molly Bradish thought she was running a
dreadful risk to marry such a "harum-scarum cretur" as Joe Griffin; but Aunt Molly was mistaken
there. Sally knew Joe a great deal better than
she did, and knew that he was a smart, prudent,
kind-hearted fellow as ever lived, without a single
bad habit, except that of playing rough jokes. She
was to the full as fond of fun as he, but did not approve of manifesting it in that way, and exerted a
constantly restraining influence upon him, probably
a great deal more than one would, who, of a less
sanguine temperament, was incapable of appreciating a joke, and had no temptations of their own to
struggle against.
There are people in this world who assume great
merit for resisting temptations they never experienced. Sally manifested that common sense that
is generally the accompaniment of true wit, when
she replied to Aunt Molly by saying, that if Joe
was to undergo all the hardships of clearing a farm
in the wilderness, and experience the trials and
disappointments that were the lot of most people,
he would need all the spirits he possessed to keep
him up.




218 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
When Joe Griffin came over for the schooner,
Fred came with him; he said, "to see Charlie's
boat."  Perhaps he did; but it was very evident
that was not all, nor the principal reason, since he
had somewhat to say to Charlie of so private a
nature, that neither the barn nor Charlie's bedroom
were retired enough for the purpose, but they must
needs resort to the old maple, and climb to the
platform in the top of it, and it was sufficiently
interesting to keep them there till dinner-time,although Charlie had left a hot plank in the steam
box, -after which Fred returned in the schooner.
Charlie sent word to Captain Rhines by Fred
that his boat would be done in three days, for he
was putting on the last plank, and the thwarts and
gunwale were in and kneed om:
Captain Rhines came on at the time specified,
and brought his paint, oars, and sails with him.
Charlie assisted him in painting her, and when she
was dry, went home in her, taking Uncle Sam
and Eaton with him, who had completed their
work.
"Now, Charlie," said Ben, when they had all
gone, "that end of the shed is yours for a workshop, chimney, fireplace, and boiler.  You can
finish it, make the doors, windows, and sashes, and




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.        219
arrange it to suit you own notions and convenience.
A boy that will do what you have done is worthy
of a good place to work in."
"0, father, I thank you a thousand times!
There's nothing in this world you could have
done that would have made me so happy. A fireplace - only think! I can be so happy working
here in the winter, and you can be here with me,
and mother can come and see us, and Ben, and the
baby, when it's a little bigger."
"Yes, and you can set up a boat here, twentyfour feet long, and that is as long as ever you will
want to build."'
"I can have a bench all around, it is so wide,
and set up two boats at once, if I like."
"Yes, Charlie, and room  enough to split up
boards with the splitting-saw, and to have a keyblock, and hew anything, and such a nice steam
kettle! "
"O, that's the greatest."
"Look overhead, Charlie. See, I've laid the
floor only about two thirds the way over."'' Yes, father - what is that for? "
"We can put any log up there that is not very
large, - cedar, for instance, - and one of us up
there, and the other down here, split it with the
whip-saw."




220 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Then, on the other side, that's floored, we can
pile up the boards and plank, and keep them dry."
"<Just so; and at the end I have left space for a
door to run stuff in at."
"I can keep all my moulds, knees, and everything I need up there and below. Father, don't
you think I shall take a sight of comfort making
the benches, and putting up shelves, racks for my
tools, my steam box, making the window-sashes
and doors, and building Uncle Isaac's boat in
here?"
"I think you will, Charlie."
"I'll tell you what I mean to do.":" What?"
"Cut a lot of cedar for planks, oak and maple
for keels and transoms, raft it over to the mill and
get it sawed, dig a lot of knees, and fill this
chamber full of stuff before winter. But," he said,
pausing, "perhaps I shan't have any more boats to
build after I finish Uncle Isaac's."
"No fear of that, Charlie. It will be but a very
little while, after father and Henry go down fishing among the canoes, before you will have a call
to build boats. I know our people around here
well enough to know that they won't stand it a
great while to see others sailing by them, while
they are tugging at their oars.":'




THE SURPRISER SURPRISED.       221
"Father, Uncle Isaac is at home now. Next
trip he is going with Joe. He has often asked me
to come and see him. If you are willing, I'll go
before I begin on the shop."
"Go, Charlie, and make him a good visit."




222 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XVI.
WHY CHARLIE DIDNST WANT TO SELL THE WINGS
OF THE MORNING.
THE next morning, Charlie, arrayed in his best,
went over to see Uncle Isaac, landing first at the
wharf, and having   a little conference with Fred,
looking over his fish flakes, into the fish-house and
store, after which he made sail, and soon rall over
to Uncle Isaac's Point. HITe found his canoe at the
shore, aground forward, but her stern afloat. He
did not want to let his boat ground, and had just
put his hand on the canoe to shove her into 1the
water, that he might put his boat off at anchor,
when he espied lthe birch, bottom up, under a tree,
and carefully covered with spruce boughs to protect
her from the sun. An irresistible desire instantly
seized upon him to get into the birch. Indeed,
he wanted, and had determined to, the first time
he ever saw her, which was when U1ncle Isaac came
on to Elmn Island to announce the arrival of the
Ar-k in Havana, batl the good news had driven it
all out of his head till too late.




CHARLIE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  223
This was'an opportunity too good to lose. He
drew her carefully into the water, and fastening
her to his boat, rowed both off, till a sufficient distance from  the shore, when, after anchoring the
boat and furling the sails, he prepared to get into
the birch. He had heard that it was a very difficult matter to go in one; but he was exceedingly
lithe of limb, a proficient in wrestling, accustomed
to put himself in all manner of shapes, and used to
going in ticklish gunning floats, and considered the
notion that he couldn't manage a birch as simply
ridiculous.
He got in, and disdaining' the dictates of prudence, which prompted to a sitting posture, began
to paddle towards the shore.  I-le was more than
three times the leng'th of the canoe fiom the boat,
when, he knew not how or wherefore, the birch in
a moment slid friom  under him, and  instantly
ri;ghting', went gayly off before the wind towards
Elm Island.
With a wil-d, astonished look, he swamn to the
boat., and, pulling up the anchor, cauglht the canoe,
expeeting to find her ha~lf if-ll of water; but thleie
sTzwas 1not a drop in her.    That is curious eino-ug:1h,"
said Charlie.  I-e was now in a fine plioht to go
visiting  His new  beaver (three-cornere), his




224 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
ruffled-bosomed shirt (the first he had ever owned),
and his new waistcoat and breeches, and steel shoebuckles -for with some of his venture-money he
had treated himself to a go-to-meeting suitwere all soaked in salt water.
He debated the matter some time in his mind,
whether he should go home or go on, but at length
concluded to go on.
"I can't be any worse off," said he. "I'll master
that birch."
He stripped, and got into her, but sat down,
when he found he could keep her on her bottom.
After paddling a while in this way, he got upon his
knees, and could paddle much better. He then
stood up once more, and went on very well for a
while. At length she began to wiggle, at first
slowly, then faster and faster, till out she went from
under him, as though she had been made of quicksilver! Charlie swam up to her, and pushed her
before him to the shore, got in, and went out again,
till he finally succeeded.
Resuming his wet clothes, he set out for Uncle
Isaac's, and found him at work in his shop.
"You are all wet, Charlie!" said he, after the
first greetings had passed. "Where have you
been? "




CHARLIE'S~ UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  225
"Overboard;" and he told him the story. "Are
you busy, Uncle Isaac?"
a"Busy? No; you know I can't keep still. I happened to have some walnut, and was turning out
some ox-bows, just to keep myself from idleness."
"I have finished Captain Rhines's boat, and came
over to see if you wouldn't like to take a sail with
me in my boat."
"Shouldn't like anything better. But come, go
into the house. It's past the middle of the forenoon. We'll have an early dinner, rig you out
with some dry clothes, and start right off. We
can take a bite with us, and come back when we
like. There's no moon, but it will be bright starlighlt."
Charlie was a great favorite with Hannah Murch.
No sooner was she made aware of his misfortune
than she exerted herself to put matters-to rights.
There happened to be in the house a shirt and
waistcoat that his nephew, Isaac Murch, had left
there.  She cut off a part of Uncle  Isaac's
breeches, and hunted up a fisherman's knit frock.
"It's no matter how you look," said she; " there's
nobody to look at you in the woods and on the
water. Salt water won't hurt your hat or clothes
one mite. I'll press them with a hot iron while
15




226 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
they are damp, and iron the hat. That ain't wet
inside, and there's no nap on it. I'll oil the shoes
before they are quite dry, and rub the buckles with
vinegar and ashes, wash your shirt, and do up the
bosom, and nobody will know that anything has
happened."
"I make you a great deal of trouble, Mrs.
Murch."
"Not a bit of it! I love boys, and often wish I
had one to make me trouble. I've brought up a
whole family of them, but they are all gone to shift
for themselves, and sometimes Isaac and I are real
lonesome."
They took Uncle Isaac's stuffed seal with them,
and their guns, and set out.
"I'll haul up the anchor and make sail, Uncle
Isaac. You take the tiller. I want you to see
how well she steers."
" She works like a pilot-boat!" said he, after he
had put her about; "and carries a little weather
helm, which she ought to. A boat with a lee
helm isn't safe. She won't luff quick enough to
shake out a flaw. You have to let the sheet fly,
and then she ain't safe, because she loses her headway.)"
They shot some birds, as the people there called




CHARLIE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  227
sea-fowl, and, as the young flood began to make,
towards night went on to a ledge Charlie had
never seen before. There was a part of this ledge
that was never covered with water. On it was a
great quantity of dry eel-grass and logs, that had
come out of the river, and been flung up by high
tides.
They hauled the boat out, took down her masts,
and covered her up in eel-grass. Uncle Isaac then
wet the seal, so that it would present that shiny
appearance seals have when they come out of the
water. Then they piled eel-grass on slabs laid
over a log, crawled under it, and ate their supper.
Towards sunset, Uncle Isaac began to make a
noise like a seal, and Charlie was astonished at the
accuracy of the imitation, and actually shrank, as
though a real animal was beside him. He would
cry first like an old seal, then like a young one.
By and by one seal after another showed their
heads above water, and some of them replied.
After a while, they swam up to the rock, and began to crawl towards the decoy; but before they
reached it, Uncle Isaac gave the signal to fire, and
three of them lay dead on the rock.
" They will come here no more to-night, nor for
many a month," said Uncle Isaac, rising up, and




228 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
flinging off the sea-weed. " It was a long shot, but
we've done well."
Charlie had been all day on the eve of making a
communication to Uncle Isaac, but somehow or
other could not muster courage. He thought he
should do it while they were coming along, but
didn't. Then he was quite sure he should while
they were under the eel-grass; but that excellent
opportunity passed away unimproved. It was now
or never. Charlie was glad there was no moon.
He almost wished there were no stars. He managed to get Uncle Isaac to steer, while he sat on
the after thwart, back towards him.
"lUncle Isaac -"  A long pause.
" Well, what is it, Charlie? "?
"Have you seen Fred lately?"
" Yes."
"Did he ask you anything?"
"Yes, he asked me if I had any corn to spare,
and I told him I would let him have five bushels."
" Vas that all?"'"Yes; I was in a hurry; went down to get
some tobacco; didn't get off the horse; he brought
it out." A longer pause.
"Fred was over to the island. He wanted me
to ask you something."




CHARLIEf'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  229
"ccDid he? What was it?"
"Whether -   He wanted me to ask if you
thought Captain Rhines and his wife would let the
girls go to sail in this boat with him — Henry
Griffin and Fred's sister."
"But ain't you going?"
"Yes, sir; they wanted me to go with them."
Charlie's face, as he got off all this, was much
the hue of a blood beet; but Uncle Isaac didn't
notice it, as there was no moon, and Charlie sittingback towards him.
"You know," continued he, gathering courage
now the ice was broken, "that Captain Rhines's
folks have been very kind to me. John and I are
just like brothers. When we made the garden,
she gave me some beautiful flower roots and
bushes, and I want to let them know that I'm
sensible of it. Fred feels just so. He says that
when he was bitten so terribly, and almost at
death's door, Elizabeth and her mother took care
of him in the daytime, and John nights; that.
Elizabeth kept the flies from him, bathed his head,
gave him drink, and fanned him, for it was right in
the heat of summer."
"To be sure they'll let them go. Why shouldn't
they?"




230 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"We didn't know."
" But I know."
" How shall we ask them?"
"Go right to the house, and ask them."
"Fred says he don't like to, because, though
Captain Rhines has been real kind to him, yet he
was such a bad boy, and went there in such shape
after the dog bit him; and you know I came here
in bad company, and, though they may like us and
wish us well, perhaps they might not like for us to
go with the girls in that way."
"' Benjamin Rhines was a poor boy, as myself, and
we have got what we have by hard knocks. He is
the last person, or his wife, either, to pay the least
regard to all these things that you and Fred have
conjured up. I'll fix it for you."
" O, if you would! That was what I wanted to
ask you all the time, but didn't know how to."
" There's nothing Captain Rhines likes so well as
a coot stew. It's their turn to come to our house,
for we were there last. Sam Hadlock is coming
here to-morrow morning, little after sunrise, to get
Fred's corn. I'll send over by him, and invite all
Captain Rhines's folks, and tell them to be sure and
come, Tige and all. The captain and his wife will
come on the horse, and the girls will walk. I'll tell




CHARLIE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  231
Sam to invite Fred. You can all go out berrying
in our pasture, and then ask them. They will ask
their mother. You can go home with them in the
evening, and make all your plans."
"But do you think Mrs. Rhines will say yes?"
"I know she will."
" Where is a good place to get berries, when we
go to sail?"
"Smutty Nose —that's burnt ground. There's
lots of them there."
"Where's a good place to get some fish for a
chowder? You know we don't want to go outside, because'twould take too much time out of
the day."
"And you had rather be ashore picking berries,
and sitting under the trees talking?":" That's it."
"I'll tell you: a haddock is a good fish for a
chowder. Do you know where Pettigrew's house
is?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you know where Ransom's Ledge is?"
"Yes, sir. - That great dry ledge, with a big,
round rock right on the highest part of it."
"Run  off south from  Smutty Nose till you
bring Pettigrew's chimbly to bear over that rock.




232 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Now for an up-and-down mark. Did you ever
notice a very high bluff, two mile or more up the
bay, bare of trees, all the clear spot for miles
around, with a house right in the middle of it?"
"0, yes, sir! That's one of the marks for
Atherton's Shoal."
"Right! Bring that house right over the lone
spruce on Kidder's P'int. You'll drop your anchor
in about twenty fathoms of water, and find plenty
of haddock, and once in a while pick up a small
cod. If you catch a cusk, tell Fred to corn him
for me; and shoot me a coon on Smutty Nose, if
you can."
"We will, Uncle Isaac, if there's any on the
island."
" Let me tell you where to look: round the banks
of Horse Shoe Cove, where the great basswood
trees are."
"I know, Uncle Isaac. They have holes under
their roots."
Under the direction of Uncle Isaac and Hannah
Murch everything went on like clock-work. Captain Rhines and his wife came early in the afternoon, as was the custom of that day, both on one
horse; the girls an hour and a half later, protected
by Tige, and accompanied by Fred, who, by pure




CHARLIE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.  233
accident, taking a short cut through the woods, had
overtaken them. After supper they went blueberrying.
"Why, girls," said Mrs. Rhines, "the blueberries
are not very thick."
"Yes, they are," said Hannah Murch; "the
ground is blue with them."
"Then I guess they didn't find the right place,
for they have hardly covered the bottoms of their
pails."
Mrs. Rhines made not the least objection to the
girls going, provided the boys would promise to
carry but one sail.
"We shan't want to carry the mainsail, Mrs.
Rhines," said Charlie; " for the boom will be right
in the way, and she works well under a foresail."
They had a splendid time, a pleasant day; found
the fishing ground by the marks, and girls and
boys caught haddock and cod, but no cusk; found
plenty of berries; and while the girls were making
the chowder, the boys got a coon for Uncle Isaac,
and shot some coots; they didn't have to row home.
Tige contributed his full share to the interest of
the occasion, for he dug out and killed the coon,
brought ashore the birds that were shot, appeared
exceedingly happy, and moreover could tell no
tales out of school.




234 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Have you had a good time, Charlie?" asked
his mother, at his return.
"A glorious time, mother; never had such a
good time in my life."
"Is Uncle Isaac well?"
"Yes, mother; they are all first rate."
"How did the girls enjoy their sail?"
" Enjoy their sail! "
"Yes, their sail; and Fred, and Henry, and
Nancy Williams; you didn't know we had a spyglass on Elm Island. I have found out what I
never knew before."
"What is that, mother?"
"That you can be as sly as other folks. I suppose you are all right now, and can finish the shop,
and Uncle Isaac's boat."
"Yes, mother, all right now; some time I'll tell
you all about it."
"No matter; I know why you wouldn't sell the
boat."
Charlie now went to work with his father clearing more land, and working upon the shop in the
intervals of other work, and on rainy days. They
also rafted boat timber to the mill, and had it
sawed to proper dimensions; dug out roots, procured crooked timber, and stuck up the boards in




CHARLIE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SELL.   235
the shop chamber to season. Charlie also set up
Uncle Isaac's boat, in order that he might work on
it in moments of broken time.
Boat-building was fast becoming something more
than an amusement for Charlie: he had already
received thirty-six dollars, and was disposed to
devote to the business all the time he could spare
from necessary farm work.




W36 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XVII.
CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.
CHARLIE rose early one morning, intending, as
Ben had gone away and given him the day, to
work on his boat; but the beauty of the morning
was such, the wind and tide just right for a sail
both ways along shore, that he felt a strong desire
to go and enjoy the day on the water.
"Go, Charlie," said his mother; " you work hard
enough; you'll get the boat done long enough
before Uncle Isaac wants her."
He took his gun and luncheon, and started: he
kept flint, steel, matches, and a horn of tinder in
the locker of the boat, that he might kindle a fire
whenever he wished.
Hauling his sheets aft, he determined to run up
the bay, in the middle, and then follow the shore
along on his return, look into the coves and nooks,
and when he saw a place that pleased him, land, as
he had a very limited knowledge of the coast.
"c I won't fish any," said he; "for if I try to do




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    237
everything in one day I shan't do anything. I'll
have a look round, and if anything comes in my
way, I'll shoot it."
The wind was so that he could fetch both wayshe was closer hauled going than returning; but to
offset this, it was now dead low water, and he
would have the whole strength of the flood tide.
The sky was clear, and there was just breeze
enough to carry three sails without cramping the
boat or throwing any spray.
Charlie stretched himself on his back, and taking
the tiller over his shoulder, lazily watched the
sails, occasionally casting a glance over the bow to
direct his course, till, as the bay grew narrower,
bringing the shores together, the beauty of the
jutting points and coves, with their overhanging
forests, —for as yet the axe had made but partial
inroads upon the wilderness, - induced himn to sit
upright, and contemplate them.
He was now many miles from Elm Island, in a
part of the country entirely unknown, and with
land on both sides.
I Iow like a witch she sails!" said he; "G what a
ways I have come! and I know by the tide I've not
been long."
He now observed, on the port side, a wide reach




238 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
making into the land, at the mouth of which were
two little islands - a wild, picturesque spot.
" That's a handsome place. I don't believe but
what a fresh-water river comes in there. -I mean
to see."
Hauling his sheets as flat as he could get them,
he shot in between the little islands; they were
covered with a thick growth of spruce, that intercepted every breath of wind; but the flood tide
was running like a mill-race, and bore him along
between perpendicular precipices on each side, that
looked as though they had been one, but sundered
by some convulsion of nature, and fringed to the
very edge with forest; the spruce, tenacious of life,
clung to the fissures in the faces of the cliffs, not
more than two hundred yards asunder.
" What a beautiful place! I mean to come here
some time with John and Fred."
Gracefully the boat glided through the glassy
water, till at length the reach terminated, not in
a river, as he had imagined, but in a marsh, through
which ran a creek, into which poured a large
brook.
The shores were most beautiful, now that the
tide was nearly up, concealing the unsightly marsh,
being undulating with many little points and coves




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    239
thickly timbered with oak, birch, and basswood;
the long branches of the oaks, with their broad
green leaves, stretching far over the water.
Though boys are not much given to sentiment,
Charlie acknowledged a transient impression of
the beauty of the scene, by silently gazing upon
every object within the range of vision. Impressions thus made are permanent, and years afterwards are recalled, and become the warp and
woof of thought.
Rousing himself from his momentary reverie, he
put his hand into the water: it was as warm as
milk; slowly flowing in a thin wave over the large
extent of marsh heated by the sun, it had become
thus warm.
" How different the water is here from what it
is at the island, where it comes right in from sea,
cold enough to make your teeth chatter to go into it.
It's too good a chance to lose."
Over went the anchor, and off went Charlie's
clothes. After swimming till he was tired, he reluctantly turned the bow of his boat homeward:
the wind might die; and he was afraid to lose the
aid of the tide.
He was so embayed with lands and forests, that
his progress was at first slow, the ebb tide not




240 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
having begun to run; but as the bay widened, the
tide strengthened, the wind increased, and was, withal, more favorable than in running up; the Wings
of the Morning began to justify her high-sounding
appellation, and with a wake scarce larger than
the -mackerel, after which she was modelled, left
point after point rapidly astern.
" What a racer you are, old boat!" said Charlie,
slapping his hand affectionately on the gunwale.
The misery and hardships of Charlie's early life
had produced a precocity beyond his years: constantly thrown upon his own resources, a boy in
age, he was yet a man in thought and action. As
his eye wandered over the vast area of dense
forest, broken only here and there by a clearing,
where there were -so few occupants for so much
land, he contrasted it with the crowded acres of his
native country.
" What a country this is!" said he; "land and
work for all. I'll have my little spot, and perhaps
some one to make it a home for me."
Charlie had now arrived at a point where, if he
sought the most direct route for home, he must
keep "away" and stretch off seaward;- he was
some three miles above Uncle Isaac's point.
Clearings now became more frequent; framed




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    241
and log houses alternated with each other, as the
means of the settlers were more or less limited.
The shore line, however, was far less picturesque
and wild: it was regular and flat, with few indentations, except some little nooks where those settlers whose clearings abutted on the shore hauled
up their log canoes. He debated with himself
whether he should keep "away," and run for home,
or run the shore down till he came to where he'was acquainted.
He did not like to leave this large portion of the
shore unexplored. He hove the boat to, and standing on the head-board, looked around: he perceived that the formation of the land changed very
much, — farther: along being broken into hills and
valleys, - and that the shore was rugged and bold.
The vision here was limited by a long, heavily-.wooded point, of singular shape; and no farther
view of the coast could be obtained without running off,-so as to look by it.
"There's a shore worth looking at. I'll know
what is beyond that point, if I don't get home tonight. I'll sleep in the woods: it's a long time
since I have done so. I wish I had brought more
luncheon."
The growth of hemlock, spruce, and fir was now!6




242 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
succeeded by white oak, rock maple, and beech:
as he neared the point, he perceived that it was
very long, with rocky shores of a moderate height;
but instead of terminating in a sharp angle, or in
many little jagged portions, it bent around somewhat in the form of a sickle, though more curved
at the end. At the distance of a quarter of a mile
was an island of six acres, very long in proportion
to its width; level, and covered with- a growth consisting almost entirely of canoe birch, many of
them three feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy
feet in height.
"There must be a cove round this point," said
he. He picked the flint of his gun, and freshened
the priming. As he rounded the hook, some coots,
that were feeding under the lee of it, took wing.
Though taken by surprise, he fired and brought
down one: he now sailed into a spacious cove
formed by the long point on one side, and a shorter
one on the other, facing south-west; by its position, the sweep of the northern part of the point
and an outlying island completely protected from
all winds.
The long point, which was more than a quarter
of a mile in breadth, with the adjacent land, sloped
from a high ridge gradually to the south-west,




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    243
terminating in a spacious intervale of deep, moist
soil, extending to the south-west point, which rose
abruptly from the beach,- a high, rocky bluff, covered with spruce and white oak, -while at the very
extremity a leaning pine, clinging by its massive
roots to the edge of the cliff, supported the nest of
a fish-hawk. Although the growth was very
heavy, few evergreens were to be seen.
From the south-western edge of this sunny and
sheltered valley the ground rose abruptly into
rounded hills, with valleys intervening, the high
ground covered with a noble growth of white oak.
Exclaiming, "I'll not go from here this blessed
night till I have seen all there is to be seen,"
after taking a hearty luncheon, he began to explore. The level, at the water's edge, was timbered
with a mixed growth of canoe and yellow birches,
shooting up to a great height, many of the trunks
of the yellow birches having a flattened shape,
which appeared very singular to Charlie: along
with these were ash, and occasionally an enormous
hemlock; there were a few round stones scattered
over the surface, covered with moss of various
colors, and clasped by the tree roots.
"What a splendid field this would make!
Wouldn't grass grow here, I tell you! " - kicking




244 THE YOUNG- SHIP-BUILDERS'OF ELM: ISLAND.
up the black, rich soil -with: -his foot.' "What a
nice place to: set a vessel!. what -splendid-timber
to build her of! and it would come right down hill.
What a -place for a saw-pit,- under the side- of-that
steep ledge! Anybody could build- a- stage there,
and roll the timber right on to it. What a place for
a garden! - falls right off to the sun. - 0! 0! "
As he ascended the slope, great long beeches,
and -once in a while a Norway pine, shot up: sky-.ward, with scarcely a limb except at.'the top, where:every fork, boasted the nest of a great blue heron.;
"' How are you, old acquaintance?" said Charlie,
as they flew over his head; "reckon we've met
before, or some of your relations."
He now came to a place where the ledge occasionally cropped - out, and the; beech- and pine
gave place to a growth of sugar maple.
"What a chance to make sugar! —build the camp
at the bottom of -the hill, and haul the sap down.
Wouldn't -apple trees- grow here! you better
believe it!"
His attention was now arrested by the sound of
running water. Turning:around, he  came upon a
broad, deep brook, with- water of a reddish tinge,
running::very swiftly, leaping  over logs half
imbedded in the soil, till,-:withi: a:broad mouth,




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE -COAST.    245
bordered by enormous basswood trees, composed,
as is often the habit of that tree, of many trunks
springing from a common root, it met the sea at
the base: of the cliffs of the south-western point.
"How handsome these trees must look in blossom! and the water is deep enough at high tide
to sail right into the mouth of this brook, and
under the trees: won't I do it some time? "
He now perceived, at a distance, something
glancing white through the mass of foliage.
" I'll see what that is when I come back. I want
to see what is on the height of land."
Proceeding up the ascent, he beheld a level surface of apparently a light loam.
" Here," said he, "is some black wood, at least."
There were clumps of large white pines and spruce,
with red oak, but no continuous growth of pine,
as on Elm  Island. "Here is corn, grain, and
potato land. What a splendid farm this would
make! so many kinds of land, and no waste land."
Going farther, he again came upon the brook.
" I shall get lost. I'll follow the brook, and see
what that white thing was."
Looking through the trees into a broad opening,
he saw a bear with two cubs, picking blueberries.
"rI've nothing but small shot in my gun: if




246 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
you'll let me alone, I'll let you alone;" and he
passed on.
The brook led him to a rocky ridge, through a
chasm, in which the brook flung itself over bowlders
large and small, old logs, and over and under great
tree roots, that ran and twisted in among them
from bank to bank.
It was the white foam of this waterfall Charlie
had caught glimpses of through the foliage.
" There's a brook for you," said he; "it's another
kind fiom our brook: that's a quiet, cosy little
brook; but this is a tearing fellow. What a chance
for a dam in that gap!'twould cost next to nothing to build it, and there's water enough to carry
a saw mill, spring and falL"
Following the course of the brook, which from
the point of the fall to the mouth was very devious, he at length came to a place where it almost
returned upon itself, forming a little tongue, with
a beautifully rounded  extremity, entirely bare
of underbrush, and covered with a thick mat of
grass. Near the end stood a magnificent elm, the
only one Charlie had as yet noticed. Its trunk
was begirt with that network of foliage formed by
the interlacing of many small twigs and green
leaves, which often, in its natural state, impart such




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.'247
singular beauty to that noble tree. Among these
meshes the wild ivy crept and twined, half imbedded in the cork-like bark. Far above the roots,
two enormous branches diverged from the trunk,
and nearly at right angles with it; after running
some distance in that direction, curved upward,
separating at a great height, the one into three, the
other into five branches, and there again subdividing, together with those of the main trunk
and others springing from the surface of the side
branches, terminated in a vast tracery of pendent
foliage, covering the whole of the little promontory
with their shadow, and almost touching the brook
that washed its shores. As Charlie burst from the
gloom of the thick forest upon this sweet spot and
this lordly tree, among whose broad masses of
foliage the rays of the declining sun seemed to love
to linger, he paused in mute admiration. At length
he approached the great tree, and standing on tiptoe, managed to barely reach the extremity of a
twig, and drew down the limb: he then stepped
back and looked upon the tree, and noted every
feature of the landscape.
"Was there ever so beautiful a spot as this!" he
said at length. "I must have a piece of this land.
I never can like any other place, except Elm




248 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Island, after this. I wonder who it belongs toe
Here's everything-timber, water, good land, I
know by the growth, and 0, how beautiful! Fish
in the brook too: there's no fish in our brook, only
the smelts and frost-fish that come from the salt
water."
- Heated and weary, he sat down between the
spur roots of the great tree, and looked up between
the boughs, watching the play of the sunlight
quivering among the leaves, and espied two hangbirds' (orioles) nests pendent from the branches.
"You've been stealing the tow from my grafts,
I guess, you rogues," noticing the material of which
the nests were made.
Returning to the shore, he found the tide was
out, and had left a considerable extent of smooth,
gravelly beach. He walked down to the water's
edge; the clams were spouting all around him.
"A bold shore and plenty of clams: it's a great
thing to have clams; we've often found it so on the
island. If I had an axe to cut logs and build a big
fire, I'd sleep here to-night; but I haven't, and that
she bear, or some wolf, might pay his respects to
me in the night. I'll tell Uncle Isaac about that
bear, and we'll have her, cubs and all."
-He now picked up some dead wood,, and making




CHARLIE EXPLORING. THE COAST.    249
a fire, cooked his coot, took a: drink of: water from
the brook, anchored the boat in the middle of the
cove, and wrapping himself in the sails, was soon
fast asleep.
With the break of day he weighed anchor, and
made sail for Uncle Isaac's. He arrived there just
as they were eating breakfast.
"You've come in a good time, Charlie; sit down
with us."
No sooner was appetite appeased than he described the place he had been so much delighted
with, to Uncle Isaac, and told him all about it, and
also about the island; what large birches there
were on it; that he saw a cove in one end of it, as
he passed, that wound around as it went in.
"That cove," said Uncle Isaac, "is the safest
little harbor that can be: no sea can get in there,
the mouth is so narrow, and it is so crooked. The
bark on my birch came from that island, and better land never lay out doors."
"Who owns it? "
"NobodyY.
"Nobody?"
"No. I suppose it belongs to the state; but it
don't belong to any individual. We don't think
anything here of a little thing like that."




250 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"( Could I buy it?"
"Yes, you could buy it of the state, and then
you would get a deed of it; but if you should go
on there, clear a spot, plant it, and keep hold of it,
nobody would ever consarn with you, and after a
while you would hold it by possession."
" Is there any name to it?"
" Not as ever I knew."
"How do you distinguish it?"
"Some call it Birch Island, and some Indian
Island, because the Indians used to make canoes
there."
Charlie told him about the bear.
" Shall I get Fred, and you go with us, and kill
her? "
" No, Charlie; she's nursing her cubs, and is poor
now; let her alone till my corn is in the milk; she'll
be getting into that; be fat then, and the cubs
worth something, and we will get the whole of
them. I'll keep track of her. How do your partridges come on?"
" First rate; before they hatched I cut away the
bushes, and built a tight fence around the hen, and
when I go there, they run right under her."
"You may keep them this summer, and next
winter; but you'll lose them in the spring, unless
you put them in a cage."




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    251
"How can that be? I let them out the other
day, and they followed the hen, and acted just like
any other chickens."
"Because that wild nature is born in'em; you
may take an Indian boy and send him to school;
but when he's grown, he'll take to the wigwam
again. I tell you, when the partridges begin to
drum next spring, look out."
"What is the name of this place where I slept
last night?"
"It has no name; it's wild land, wilderness:
didn't you see a bear there?"
"Yes, sir; and I heard wolves howl in the
night; but is there not some name to tell it by?"' There's a number to the range, -I forget what
it is, -and we call the cove Pleasant Cove."
"That's a first-rate name: what made them call
it that?"
"Because it is such a nice harbor, and a sheltered, sunny spot; people in the winter time,
bitter cold weather, pulling up the bay in a canoe,
get under the lee of -that long p'int, and then go
into the cove, and are safe."
" Does anybody own that?"
"Yes, there's a man in Salem owns twelve hundred and eighty acres, and that is part of it."




252 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"W sould he sell it? "
-"I suppose so. He has sold a good deal."
"What would he ask an acre for that part
of it?"
"There are no masts or spars on it of any great
amount. It's settling land — hard wood growth.
It ought not to bring more than fifteen cents an
acre; but he don't care whether he sells or not,
and might ask fifty."
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, indeed; known him this twenty years.;He stopped at my house when he bought that
land, and three times as much more. I carried the
chain for Squire Eveleth when he run it out."
I "Uncle Isaac, I want a piece of land. You
don't know how much I've thought about it!
None of my folks ever owned an inch of land.
Night and day I have thought and dreamed about
it, and I want that, and no other in this world.
The moment I came round the point into the cove,
and saw the sun shining on the trees, something
said to me, That's your home."
"I know what that feeling is, and all about it;
and if you feel that way, you'll never be worth a
cent, or be contented in any other spot. There's
something comes out of the soil you love that puts




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    253
the strength into your arm, and the courage into
your heart."
"But how shall I get it?"
"Buy it. You've got money enough, when Fred
pays you,: to buy enough for a farm, and more too."
"But before that, some one that has got money
to pay down might see it, like it just as well as I
have,.and: buy it right off; perhaps it's sold now."
" No, it ain't. People are not so fond of going
on to wild land. They had rather buy land that
has been partly cleared. I'll write to Mr. Pickering, and get the price, and the refusal of it, and I'll
buy it for you. When you get your money from
Fred, you can pay me. You'll have enough from
your boats, probably, to buy two hundred acres;
and when we hear from him, I'll go over it with you.
There's a heavy growth of pine back from the
shore: I should- want that; and there's a- pond,
that the brook is an outlet of: I should want command of that water. The brook is a mill privilege.
Boards will be worth something by and by; not in
my day, perhaps, but you are young, and can afford
to wait."
"Then there's bears on it, Uncle Isaac. It is
worth a good deal more for that."
"Most people wouldn't consider that any privik
lege."




254 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
" O, I should!"
"But the thing that toles the bears there, and
makes them like it, is a privilege."
" What is that?"
"Acorns. There's a master sight of acorns and
beech-nuts on the whole of that range along the
shore, and hog-brakes in the swales. Hogs can get
their living in the woods, and, by clamming on the
beach, all the summer and fall."
"Won't the bears kill'em? "
" Once in a while one; but then you can kill the
bear, and he'll be worth as much as the hog. I
would rather have ten bears round than one wolf."
"'You know, Charlie," said Hannah Murcb,
"bear's grease is good to make boys limber to
wrestle. If you had served my bed-clothes as you
did Sally's, I don't know what I should have done
to you."
"I would have spoilt all the beds in the house
for the sake of throwing Henry Griffin."
"It appears to me you are beginning in good
season to get a farm. You are not going to housekeeping? "
"The sooner the better," said Uncle Isaac.
"When a rat gets a hole, he carries everything
to it."




CHARLIE EXPLORING THE COAST.    255
"No, Mrs. Murch, nothing of that kind; but I
do want a piece of the soil that I can walk over
and call my own, and have crops of my own, that
nobody can take from me. I love to work with
tools; but I love the earth that God made, and the
woods. I love that spot, and am afraid I shall
lose it if I don't get it now. If I can only know
it's mine, that's enough. Mrs. Murch, I think
there's something substantial about the earth."
"So there is, Charlie; and when you've got the
land, you've something under your feet, and it can
lay there till you want it. There will be no taxes
of any amount till there's a road made through it."
"Hannah," said Uncle Isaac, "the Bounty is
loading with bark and wood for Salem, in Wilson's
Cove. I'll send my letter by her."
" And I," said Charlie, "must go home."




256 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF -ELM: ISLAND.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.
CHARLIE was in high spirits when he weighed
anchor; but on the way "a change came over the
spirit of his.dream."
He began to reproach himself that, cari'ied away
by the attractions of Pleasant Cove, anfid the impulse of the moment, he had gone so far without
consulting his adopted parents. "Father will
think that I ought to have asked him. He would
have bought the land for me if he had thought
best I should have it."
When he reached the island, he told them all
about it. Ben and Sally seemed to understand his
feelings perfectly.
"It would not have looked well," said Sally,
"after Uncle Isaac offered to buy the land for you
not to have accepted the offer."
"You could not have found a better piece of
land, or a more pleasant spot," said Ben. "That
flat next to the beach is splendid wheat land, and




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   257
there's an excellent boiling spring on the eastern
side of the cove."
"I didn't see that, but I saw the brook."
The evenings were now quite long, and Charlie
made rapid progress in surveying. Uncle Isaac's
boat also grew apace under the new impulse he
had received. Every stroke of the hammer was so
much towards buying land.
Ben's prediction in respect to increase of business was abundantly verified. After Uncle Isaac's
boat was finished and gone, Charlie set up another,
without any model or guide except his eye, and
the knowledge of proportions which he had gained
from the other boats. He endeavored to unite the
sailing qualities of the West Wind with a greater
capacity of burden, and ability to carry sail with a
less quantity of ballast.
Charlie did not intend to sell this boat, but to
make her large and able for rough weather and
heavy seas, and keep her for a family boat to go to
the main land in. HIe had of late been smitteft
with a very great desire to go to meeting on the
main land, and to dine at Captain Rhines's, and he
knew that his mother would like to go with him,
as she never was afraid of anything. But although
he did not intend to sell this boat, he designed her
17




258 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
for a permanent model of others to be sold. He
perceived that the other boats, though infinitely
better than the dug-outs to get about in, were not
what was required for fishing; that, though great
sailers, they were not capacious enough to hold fish
and ballast both, and required too much ballast to
keep them on their legs. It is by no means an
easy attainment to unite in one boat all the elements of a good fishing-boat, that will sail well,
row easy, and save life in bad weather. A fisherman wants a boat that will row easy, for he often
starts away at two o'clock in the morning, when it
is generally calmn, and rows seven or eight miles,
perhaps more, to reach his ground. He cannot go
without ballast, and he can get none after he is
outside, except he gets fish, which is by no means
certain. On the other hand, if he gets a large
quantity of fish, he can throw some of his ballast
overboard, and he doesn't want to row half a ton
of ballast eight or ten miles. But if his boat is
stiff, and will carry reefed sails, or a whole foresail,
with a moderate quantity of ballast that he can
keep in all the time, not sufficient to overload her
when fish are plenty, and yet sufficient to make her
safe, he is suited.
It is not a great deal, to be sure, to row four or




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   259
five hundred weight of ballast more, for once or
twice, but when you have got to do it year in and
year out, when tired and hungry, it is a good deal.
A fisherman wants a boat, too, that is smart, stiff
to bear a hard blow, buoyant, will mind her helm,
and work quick to clear an ugly sea, and sail well
on a wind. They often go twenty miles from
land, tempted by weather that appears "llard and
good," to particular shoals, where they get large
fish, when the weather suddenly changes, and in
an open boat they must beat in, and they do beat
in. There are boats now built at Hampton or Seabrook that would beat into Boston Bay, with a man
in them that knew how to handle them in a gale of
wind, when a ship couldn't do it; for, when a big
ship gets down to close-reefs, she won't do much
on a wind. The people then knew where the fish
were as well as we do now; but they couldn't go
off' to those places except in pinkies, and, when
they ventured to the inner shoals, reefs, and hake
ground in their canoes, it was real slavery. They.
had to row in if thewind came ahead, or it was
calm, and were liable to be blown to sea and lost.
Charlie meant to build a boat that would answer
these requirements as far as he was able. Then he
meant to take moulds of every timber and every




260 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
streak of plank as he went along, so that he might
work from them, and build another of the same
size, with one half the labor.
This he did, and built a boat twenty-two feet
long on top, sharp under water, and deeper in proportion to her length than the others, with a pinkstern and lap-streak. It was less work to put on
the planks with a lap than with a calking-seam;
there was less need of accuracy; for, if the plank
lapped too much in any place, you had only to take
it off with a plane or chisel.
When his boat was finished, he painted her by
the streaks, and she looked as neat as a pin. He
thought she was a great deal handsomer than a
square stern; so did everybody.
When anchored beside the Perseverance, she
looked so much like her that he christened her
Perseverance, Jr. As soon as the spars and sails
were made, Charlie and the whole family, except
Sally Merrithew and the baby, went over to meeting. People then came great distances to meeting,
taking a luncheon of "turnovers," or doughnuts
and cheese, and going out to walk in the buryingground to eat it, the intermission between services
being short.
The boat was anchored in the cove, right in




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   261
front of the church, and many were the curious
eyes that scanned her proportions during the intermission.
Henry Griffin had enjoyed his boat but three
weeks, when he came on to the island, and wanted
to buy the Perseverance, Jr.
" What do you want of two boats?"
"There's a man in Wiscasset wants mine for a
pleasure-boat. I think yours would be a great deal
better boat for fishing in the winter, in rough
weather. I will sell mine, and buy yours."
"I won't sell this boat, for we want just such a
boat to go over to meeting in. We can go in her
dry, by carrying short sail, any time, almost; but
I'll build you one just like her."
"When? "
I'11 begin to-morrow."
"Then build her, and rll sell this."
In the course of a fortnight he had three orders
more; all wanted them as soon as possible, they
said. The boats were rather large, but just the
thing for two men.
He then hired Robert Yelf to work with him,
and sent some moulds over to Uncle Isaac, who
dug out roots for him, and procured crooks for
knees and breast-hooks. When he had filled these




262 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM -ISLAND.
orders, there was a lull, and Charlie went to farming and making preparations for boat-building in
future.
Having now mastered the principles of surveying by means of a Gunter's scale and chain, which
Ben possessed, and a cross staff which he had made
under his father's directions, he began to practise
by measuring the cleared land on the island and
the points, and making and platting the different
pieces. He was anxious to learn the use of the
compass, and to run lines by it; biut he had no land
compass, and here, with most boys, the matter
would have rested; but unaccustomed to yield to
difficulties, Charlie resolv.ed to make a boat compass serve his turn — the very one that had been
the instrument of saving his life in the snow
squall.
His first attempt was to make a tripod. Upon
a piece of oak board he drew a circle two inches
larger than the compass, with projections at each
side six inches long, and sawed it out by the marks:
he then drew another circle, two inches inside of
this, and sawed down to it, cutting out the woodl
so as to leave two projections on each side, two
inches wide and two long: in each of these he cut
a slot on the underside, also in one of the end ones,




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   263
to receive a tenon cut on the end of each of the
legs. By heating a wrought nail he made rivets,
upon which his legs traversed easily, and fastened
the compass to a wooden peg in the centre. A
land compass has brass perpendiculars at each end
of the base upon which it sits, with slits in them,
by which to sight. In order to represent these, he
made two holes in the ends of his base, in line with
the needle of the compass, and put in two knitting
needles, making them perpendicular with a plumbline: thus, by setting up a stake, he had three objects
in range, and could sight accurately. A land compass has a spirit level on its frame, by which to
level it, screws to keep it in place, and a ball and
socket joint upon which it moves; but by spreading or contracting the legs of his tripod, and by
means of a plumb-line (the great resource of all
mechanics in emergencies), he contrived to depress,
elevate, and adjust the compass, measure land, and
run a line accurately, and in a manner which Ben,
after looking over his work, pronounced correct.
"Survey the island, Charlie," said Ben; " I
should like to know how much there is in it. I
will carry the chain for you, and help you about
measuring the points."
4'Don't you know how much land you bought?'




264 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
" No; I bought it for so much; had it for more or
less- what Mr. Welch's father had it for when he
bought it; I expect it overruns."
"I should like to know, too," said Uncle Isaac,
who had come to the island that morning. " I've
heard the most talk back and forth about this
island: some say Ben hasn't got the land he paid
for, some say he's got more. You need three to
work in the woods. I'll carry the chain."
" I had it for seventeen hundred acres," said Ben.
"Well, there's all that, if not more."
They ran lines north-east and south-west the
length of the island, and parallel to each other at
eighty rods apart; then ran cross lines, also parallel,
eighty rods apart; blazed a tree at every intersection, and numbered the ranges included in these
spaces, and put them down in a field-book. As
the shore line was irregular, they measured the
shore sections by offsets from the range lines.
Charlie then made a plat of it. The island contained nineteen hundred and thirty-five acres, one
rood, twenty-seven rods, five links.
"That's not much more than there ought to be,"
said Uncle Isaac; " you have measured the whole;
but they didn't call these points anything, and
they of course made allowance for the squawk
swamp."




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   265
They were five days in doing it, and it afforded
Charlie excellent practice. A short time after that,
Ben was sent for to run a large lot of timber land.
He hired Squire Eveleth's compass, and took
Charlie with him, when he had an opportunity to
perfect his knowledge of that instrument.
In due time Uncle Isaac received a letter from
Salem. The price of the land was seventy-five
cents an acre. Uncle Isaac, Ben, and Charlie went
to look over it.
"'It is too much," said Uncle Isaac; "seventyfive cents an acre! farther back, you can buy it for
twelve or fifteen cents."
" What of that? " replied Ben: " no chance to get
a thing to eat, except what you get from the land,
and while you are clearing, almost starve to death;
have to hunt and live on beech leaves and acorns;
while here are clams at the shore, and fish and
lobsters in the sea, to fall back upon; besides a
brook with a fine mill privilege."
"Better than that, Ben; there are plenty of
pickerel in this pond, and the alewives, smelts, and
frost-fish come up here into the brook, and any
amount of eels."
" There is still another great advantage you have
overlooked: there is a swale made by the flowing




266 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
back of the water, where the beavers once had a
dam, that will cut six or seven tons of hay; that
would be everything to a man going to settle on
it. With the hay in that swale for winter, browse
in this hard wood growth in summer, he could keep
cattle right off."
The pond contained over two hundred acres,
and they found that in order to obtain that, and a
portion of the heaviest pine growth back of it, it
would be necessary for Charlie to buy about four
hundred acres, or more.
"Buy it, Charlie," said Ben; " you will then have
the mill privilege and the timber both, and can do
well with it."
Charlie concluded to take it; and Uncle Isaac
wrote to Salemn to close the bargain. Ben and
Charlie now went to Boston and procured their
trees, taking up a load of fish to Mr. Welch, for Fred.
Mr. Welch gave Charlie a Gtnter's scale, a land
compass and chain, with all the appurtenances.
They received a letter fiom Isaac Murch, to the
great delight of all, especially of Captain Rhines -
the readers of the Ark will remember him. lir.
Welch told the captain that he had received a
letter at the same time fiom Captain Radford, in
which he sajd Isaac was now second mate of the




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   267
Congress, an excellent seaman, and good navigator;
and he should give him a mate's birth at the first
opportunity.
"He's my boy," said the captain, highly gratified;
"for I brought him to life when he was good as
dead, and Flour and I educated him. I'll risk him
anywhere; that will be good news for his parents
and Uncle Isaac."
Fred had orders from Mr. Welch for more fish;
Joe Griffin likewise.
Charlie was now  abundantly  supplied  with
material for building boats, and had more orders.
The harvest being over, he was assisted by his
father. In a tight shop, with a rousing fire, they
had nice times together.
Nobody would fish in a canoe now; and as
demand always creates supply, an ingenious man
at Wiseasset (a ship carpenter, who had been
injured by a fall, and could not endure the heavy
worlk of the ship-yard) sawone of Charlie's boats,
took the dimensions of her, and set up boat-buildincg. Uncle Sam Elwell also built a boat for himself, and other ingenious people did the same; but
Charlie's boats outsailed all the others, and were
preferred; there was something about them  the
others'could riot imitate. Uncle Isaac said there
was a soul in them; they were alive.




268 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
The Perseverance made several trips, and Fred
obtained his goods in that way easily, and at small
expense for freight, and paid Charlie his money,
with a handsome profit, much more than the money
would have earned at interest.
The last time the Perseverance went to Boston,
Sally went in her, baby and all. Mr. Welch and
his wife were delighted to see her. Mrs. Welch
went shopping with her, and she purchased furniture for the house, and dishes to take the place of
the old pewter, a large looking-glass, and a globe
to hang on the wall in the front room, dresses for
herself, and some presents for Ben and Charlie.
Mr. Welch declared the child should be named
for him, and so it was.
Charlie, having received his money, was naturally anxious to close the bargain for the land, of
which Uncle Isaac had obtained the refusal.
In going over it the first time, they had merely
guessed at the number of acres it would be necessary to buy in order to take in the pond, the pine
timber, and the whole of the brook.
Men like Ben and Uncle Isaac will, by pacing,
come quite near to the contents of a piece of land;
but it was now necessary to measure and describe
it sufficiently to make a deed.




CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.   269
Charlie wanted the cove, the long point, a growth
of white oak which extended several rods beyond
the short point, and the pond and brook. These
he meant to have, even if he had to buy more land
than he actually wanted. Mr. Pickering wrote to
Uncle Isaac, who was an old acquaintance of his,
that he was willing to take Rhines's survey, if he
would go with them and carry the chain.
When they arrived at the spot with the new
instruments Mr. Welch had given him, Charlie
wanted to begin at the shore line, above Long
Point; but Ben told him if he did he would lose
the point, as he could only hold what was within
his lines. They therefore began on the shore, below the short point, ran the lines, and made a
description by which to write the deed, as follows:
Beginning at a blazed yellow birch tree, standing
in a split rock on the shore, twenty rods southwest from Bluff Point, so called; thence running
south-east four hundred and fifty rods to a blazed
pine, marked C. B. (Charlie's initials), south-east
corner; thence north-east one hundred and fifty
rods to a blazed pine tree, marked C. B., north-east
corner; thence north-west four hundred and six
rods to a blazed red oak tree on the shore, marked
C. B.; thence along the shore of Pleasant Point,




270 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
so called, at low-water mark, to the point of
the high ledge at the westerly end of the same;
thence west by south forty rods to the southwesterly end -of said Pleasant Point at low-water
mark; the line thence to the point begun at,
being below low-water mark, across the mouth
of Pleasant Cove, containing three hundred and
sixty-three acres, more or less, thirty-seven being
deducted for the contents of Pleasant Cove.
"I must go to the brook and get a drink of
water," said Charlie, when they had finished.
"We'll go to Cross-root Spring," said Uncle
Isaac. "That's something you've not seen yet,
and it's one of the best pieces of property you've
got."
Uncle Isaac led the way along the shore to the
head of the cove. There the land rose gradually
into a very gentle swell. A few rods from the
water's edge, on the breast of this slight elevation,
were two large birches, whose branches interlocked;
two of their main roots, crossing each other, grew
together, and between them quivered, in transient
gleams of sunlight, the clear waters of a noble
spring.
Charlie looked down into it. The white sand
was rolling over and over, as the bubbling water




CHARLIE BECOMES A fREEHOLDER.   271
flung it up from the bottom. All around were the
footprints of sea and land birds and animals.
Uncle Isaac pointed out the track of a wolf, coons,
and the print of a bear's foot.
"There," said he, "is a well that God Almighty
dug for the good of his creatures. You see they
know where it is. More red than white men have
drank at this spring. It is a priceless gift! Let
us drink, and remember the-Giver."
These details may not be very interesting to us,
but they were intensely so to Charlie, who felt his
hand was almost upon the prize he had so long
desired. It had already been productive of one
good result. It had given him an excellent practical knowledge of surveying and mathematics, most
useful in his mechanical pursuits.
When Ben had written out the description, after
returning to the island, he gave it to Charlie, and
said, "When you pay your money, and get a deed
of the land thus described, you've got all the land
that belongs to you, and as good a farm as there is
in town."
In due time Charlie received his deed, which,
he being a minor, ran to Uncle Isaac in trust for
him.




272 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.
PERHAPS the readers of the previous volumes
will recollect that Isaac Murch became so much
interested in the account given him, in Havana, by
Captain Rhines, of the noble conduct of Flour in
respect to his old master, aiding him in his poverty,
and also of his kindness and fidelity to himself
when sick, that he determined to teach him to read
and write, and he made some progress during the
passage home. When Isaac went to sea again,
John Rhines became his teacher, and when John
went to learn a trade, Captain Rhines undertook
the task himself. It was quite pleasing to note the
respect with which Flour was treated by the whole
community since le had begun to respect himself,
had become a temperate man, and was acquiring
knowledge; for, not satisfied with teaching him
to read, Captain Rhines was instructing him in
arithmetic. He spent the rainy days, and other
leisure moments he could spare from his labor, in




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.       273
studying. Nobody now called him Flour, except
occasionally from long habit.
It was now James, or Peterson, or even Mr.
Peterson. He was an excellent calker and rigger.
Captain Rhines introduced him at Wiscasset,
where they built many large vessels to carry tontimber and spars, as a reliable workman, and he
had all the work he wanted. The captain also
gave him a piece of land, put him up a houseframe, and boarded it. He was able to finish it,
little by little, himself, and leave the money, which
was in Captain Rhines's hands, on interest. He
had a boy, Benjamin, named after Captain Rhines,
nineteen years old, a stout, smart fellow, with very
handsome form and features, all the boy, now John
Rhines was gone, that Charlie couldn't throw; but
he was so black he shone.
Before this, Flour lived near Captain Rhines's
pasture, in a half-faced log cabin, where he had
squat. It stood among a bed of thistles, with
heaps of clam shells all around. Destitute of a
chimney, the smoke went through a hole in the
roof of his cabin, and he was called Old Flour.
No one but they who had lived on Elm Island
could imagine what a convenience the Perseverance, Jr. had become. Indeed, not a member of
18




274 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the family would have parted with her for any
consideration.
Sunday morning, no matter if it was quite rough,
they would all but Sally Merrithew or Mrs. Rhines,
get in and go to meeting. On pleasant days they
would take the baby, and then all could go. If it
was calm  it did not matter in the least. Ben
would take two oars, and, sitting on the forward
thwart, row cross-handed, while Charlie would pull
one oar aft, and Sally, assisted, or rather bothered,
by Ben, Jr., would steer.
The boat had not been in the water a week
before Mrs. Rhines and Mary discovered that they
had never seen the baby, and must see it; and
Charlie had to bring them on.
It was so convenient, too, for Sally's mother,
who was no more afraid of the water than a coot,
to come and see her daughter! and even Mrs.
Rhines, naturally timorous on the water, was not
afraid to come in that boat.
Tige came on with  the Rhines girls. He
wanted to see the baby; and such a frolic as he had
with Ben, Jr., and the little one you never saw!
Tige played rather rough. Every once in a while
he would get the whole top of Bennie's head into
his mouth, and scrape the scalp with the points of




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.      275
his teeth, till the child would sing out at the top
of his voice, and quit playing till it had done smarting, and then begin with new zeal. Bennie had a
great chunk of meat that Tige wanted; but Ben
wouldn't give it to him. Tige followed him round,
and when his attention was occupied, licked it out
of his hand; but before he could swallow it, Ben
got hold of one half, and it was which and t'other,
till, Ben's fingers slipping on the greasy meat, he
went over backwards on the floor, and the meat
disappeared down Tige's throat in a moment.
The child, provoked, began to strike him; but all
the notice Tige took of it was to wag his tail in
complacent triumph, and lick the child's greasy
fingers.
"It wouldn't be a very safe operation for a man
to pull meat out of Tige's mouth, and strike him
in that way," said Ben, patting fondly the noble
brute; " his life wouldn't be worth much."
While Charlie was thus pleasantly and profitably
occupied in boat-building, a cousin of Captain
Rhines, Mr. Foss, who was employed in ship-building at Stroudwatel; came to visit him. Captain
Rhines brought him on to the island to see Ben.
He conceived a great liking for Charlie, who then
had two boats set up in the shop, and partly done.




276 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Charlie, in the course of conversation, told him of
his desire and intention one day to become a shipbuilder.
"If that is your intention," was the reply of Mr.
Foss, "you have worked long enough on boats."
"Why so, sir; is it not much the same thing?"
"Not by any means; the proportions are very
different. A full boat would be a very sharp ship
— too sharp: the scale is larger, and the distances
longer. What would be a proper dead rise in a
boat would be quite another thing, come to let it
run the length of a vessel's floor, three times as
wide as the whole boat. I'm going to set up a
vessel when I go back; if you will go with me and
work till spring, I'll give you good wages, and
learn you all I know; with the practice you have
had on boats, you will learn very fast."
Ben expressed his willingness.
"But I have these boats to finish."
"Mr. Foss will not go for a week; what is not
done by that time, I will do."
"What will you do, if I take the tools?"
"You need take no more than a broadaxe, adze,
square, rule, and compasses," said Mr. Foss; "I've
got tools enough."
It was so late in the year, Ben thought he should




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.      277
not be able to cross to the main land much more,
and told them to take the boat.
They accordingly furnished themselves with
provision, water, and a compass, and set out, Charlie
consoling himself for leaving Elm Island by the
prospect of being only three or four miles from
John.
He was now to leave Elm Island for the first
time since he came on to it, and he went all
around to take a last look at his pets, and bid them
"'good by," and even to the top of the old maple
and big pine, where he had spent so many happy
hours.
They had a pleasant time up, either a fair wind
or calm, did not have to row but little till they ran
her right into Stroudwater River, and into the
ship-yard.
The next Saturday evening about eight o'clock,
John Rhines was told that some one wished to see
him at the door; and going without a light, he
landed in the embrace of Charlie.
The moment they were alone, Charlie said, —
" Guess what I have done since you came away."
"Built a boat."
"Yes; I've sold her, and built five more; sold
all but one of them, and I came up in her."




278 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"What a boy you are, Charlie! We'll have some
sails in her; there's a glorious chance to sail in
this harbor in the summer, and a splendid fishing
ground. There are lots of acorns on Hog Island,
and walnuts on Mackie's Island."
" Yes; but guess what else I've done."
"It's no use to guess, you do so many things."
"Bought a farm."
" Bought a farm!"
"Yes, and paid for it! almost four hundred acres;
all kinds of land. 0, the prettiest harbor! and a
pond, a brook, and the handsomest elm tree you
ever saw. All kinds of land, and bears on it, John;
only think, bears on it, and wolves. 0, I forgot a
little duck of an island, where the Indians made
canoes."
"Is there a great long point that crooks round
like a horseshoe? and does the elm stand on a
little tongue that the water runs almost round?"
"Just so."
"O, I know; that's a splendid place! I've been
there many a time, frost-fishing. Cross-root Spring
is there, a regular boiling spring; but I never was
far fiom  the beach. I didn't know  there wlas
a pond."
"Now, John, some time when we get through




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.      279
here, you, and I, and Fred will go and have a
chowder there; go all over it, and have a good
time."
After this they spent Sundays together, and sat
side by side at meeting.
When Charlie began to work at Stroudwater the
timber was not cut; thus he had an opportunity to
help cut the timber, and begin at the foundation.
Modern improvements were unknown then, and
he found Mr. Foss built his vessels very much as
he built his boats -by setting up stem and stern
posts, a few frames, and working by ribbands.
It was late in the fall when Charlie went away,
and Ben was obliged to work on the boats when
he ought to have been putting his winter wood
under cover. The moment the boats were done,
he hauled up an enormous pile of wood, both green
and dry, and had cut up a good part of the dry,
when there came a great fall of snow and covered
it all up; and not only so, but the dry chips that
had come from hewing the fiame of the shed,
which were scattered over the ground, and that
he meant to have put under cover. Thus the
wood was all covered up in snow, and the new
wood-shed stood empty.
Sally Merrithew had returned home; the snow




280 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
was deep; the weather, though fair, extremely cold;
and communication between Elm Island and the
main pretty much suspended. Joe Griffin was
building a log-house on his own land; but the
snow being so deep that it was quite difficult to
work in the woods, Peter Brock had persuaded
him to assist in making axes.
Uncle Jonathan Smullen lived about half way
between Joe's father's and the blacksmith's shop,
on a little rise, just where the road makes a short
turn and goes down to Peterson's spring. Thus
Joe passed the house several times a day, going to
and returning firom labor.
Sally Merrithew did not approve of his practical
jokes: he knew it, and endeavored with all his
might to restrain himself. It was now a long time
since Joe had been uncorked, and Sally was beginning to hope he never would be again.
Uncle Smullen had a cross ram: he would often
run at the old man, who, being old and clumsy, was
afraid of him. The barn-yard was very large,
being used for both sheep and cattle. In the middle was a large patch of ice. The old man had
stocking feet drawn over his shoes, to prevent slipping, and whenever the ram made demonstrations,
would run on the ice; the ram, unable to follow,




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.       281
would stand at the edge and keep him there till
some one came, or the ram got tired.
Half the cause of the trouble was, that the ram
wanted the hens' corn, and, because the old man
wouldn't let him have any, meant to proceed to
blows. Joe, finding the old gentleman beleaguered
one day, relieved him.
" The pesky creetur, Mr. Griffin, has kept me here
most all the forenoon."
" I'd cut his head off."
"I would, Joseph; but he's an excellent breed; I
bought him of Seth Dingley."
This incident suggested an idea to Joe's but too
fertile brain in an instant. The spirit of mischief
invigorated by a long repose, and with difficulty
suppressed, rose in arms. That night he made
shoes for the ram's feet, with sharp calks, and nails
to put them on with. Mr. Smullen was very
methodical in his habits, and Joe was well acquainted with them.
It was his custom, before turning the cattle out
in the forenoon, to put a little salt hay in the yard
for the sheep, then carry out the corn for the hens,
and bring in the eggs in the same measure; and he
never varied a hair's breadth.
After Bobby had gone to school, Joe went into




282 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the sheep-house, nailed the shoes on the ram, and
after plaguing and irritating him  till he was
thoroughly mad, hid himself behind the log fence,
in the sun, to see what would come of it.
The ram did not offer to molest the old gentleman while he was bringing out the hay. Soon
afterwards he came out with a wooden bowl full of
corn, going to the barn, when the ram started
for him.
"You won't catch me this time, you pesky
sarpint you," said the old gentleman, quickening
his pace for the ice, and soon reached what he supposed his harbor of safety. The brute had found
out he was shod, and running backward half the
length of the yard to obtain momentum, rushed
forward and struck the old gentleman in the rear
with the force of a battering-rarm. Away went the.
corn in all directions over the yard, to the manifest
delight of the hungry sheep. Uncle Smullen lay
prostrate on the ice: one half the wooden bowl
flew over the fence, the other into the water
trough, while the ram, who had exerted his utmost
strength in a dead rush, not meeting with the
resistance upon which he had calculated, turning
a summerset upon the body of his antagonist, went
end over end. Before he could pick himself up,




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CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.        283
he was seized by Joseph, and flung into the
barn.
The moment Joe saw Uncle Smullen fall, his
better nature awoke: hastening to his aid, he
inquired, -
"Are you much hurt, Uncle Jonathan?"
"I don't know! I'm  in hopes there ain't no
bones broke; it's a marcy there ain't. If I'd gone
backwards, it would sartainily have killed me."
"' Your face is bleeding," said Joe, wiping it with
his handkerchief.
"Yes; I'm terribly shook all over, and I feel
kind o' faint."
The old man was bruised on his forehead, and
his lip was cut by the edge of the bowl; but
though much frightened, he was not seriously
injured.
Joe took him in his arms, and carried him into
the house, secretly resolving that this should be
the last thing; of the kind  he would ever be
guilty of.
Depositing the old man on the bed, he went to
the barn and tore the shoes off the ram's feet,
but, in his haste to get back, dropped one on the
floor of the tie-up.
"I  thought I was safe on that spot of ice,




284 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Joseph. He never followed me there before. I
didn't think he could stand on the ice."
"You see he couldn't very well," replied Joe,
who was in agony lest his agency in the matter
should get wind; "for you see he went end over
end."
"We ought to be thankful," said Mrs. Smullen,
",it's no worse. There was old Mrs. Aspinwall
broke her hip only by treading on a pea, and falling down on her own floor. What we're going to
do about wood and the cattle I'm sure I don't
know! I'm so lame, I couldn't milk to save my
life."
"Don't worry the least mite about the cattle,
Mrs. Smullen. I'll take care of them, and cut you
up a lot of wood."
" I'm sure I don't know how we shall ever repay
you, Joseph. It's of the Lord's marcies you happened to be here."
This was perfect torture to Joe. His cheeks
burned, and his conscience stung.
"I'm  sure," said the old man, "I don't know
what I shall do with that ram, now he's got to be
master."
"I'll take care of him," said Joe.
He persuaded Sally Merrithew to go there, and




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.       285
stay till the old gentleman got better, then went
and tied the ram's legs, and, flinging him on his
shoulders, carried him over to his father's.
Sally was a girl of keen wit and excellent judgment. She had not the least doubt but that, in
some way or other, Joe Griffin was at the bottom
of the whole matter.
" How  came he there at that time of day,
when he ought to have been in Peter Brock's
shop?" was the query she raised in her own mind.
His assiduous attentions to the old people had to
her a suspicious look, and appeared very much like
an effort to atone for an injury. The ram had
never ventured on the ice before - how came he to
then? Still these surmises afforded not a shadow
of proof. She was greatly perplexed.
One morning she was milking, and, perceiving
that her pail, didn't set even on the floor, moved it,
and underneath was one of the ram's shoes that
Joe had dropped. In an instant she had a clew to
the mystery. Perceiving that no one was in sight,
she went to the spot of ice, found the prints of the
ram's corks, and compared them with the shoe.
"What a creature he is!" said Sally. "I was
in hopes he had left off such things, after having
been most smothered in a honey-pot, and scorched




286 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
in the brush. He's broke out again, worse than
ever."
Sunday night he came to see her, as usual.
"'Joe," said she, "do they shoe at Peter's
shop?"
"Yes, Peter shoes lots of horses; but they go
round to the houses to shoe oxen, carry the shoes
and nails, and cast the cattle in the -barn floor"
(slings were not in use then) "to nail them on."
"Do they ever shoe rains?"
Joe's features instantly assumed a terrified expression. He colored to the very tips of his ears,
but uttered no word.
"If," said Sally, "it had been Ben Rhines, Seth
Warren, Charlie, or anybody that could have taken
their own part; but to set to work on that poor old
man, one of the kindest men that ever lived, who
took in that miserable Pete Clash, and clothed him,
when he had no place to put his head, and whom
everybody loves, to run the risk of killing or
crippling him for life, I say it's real mean!"
Joe made no reply, and Sally saw something
very much like a tear in his eye. She pitied him
from the bottom of her heart, but felt that for the
reformation of such an incorrigible sinner it was
her duty to go on.




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.       287
"Did you ever see that before?" she inquired,
holding before the terrified culprit the identical
shoe, with the nails still sticking in it.
Joe uttered a groan.
"If it should get out, the neighbors would never
speak to you again, and you'd have to leave town.
I know you feel bad," she continued, bursting into
tears; "but what did put it into your head?"
" The devil."
"Well, I'd keep better company."
"You see, Sally, I was going home to dinner one
day, and the ram had the old man penned on the
ice, and there they stood looking at each other.
That's what put it into my head. I didn't think
anything about the consequences till I saw the ram
start for him. Then it all came to me, and I was
over the fence in a minute; but it was too late. I
don't think I'm made like other folks. Such things
come over me just like lightning, and it seems as
-if I was hurried. This is the last shine I shall ever
cut up."
"You've said so before, Joe."
"But I mean it now; I'm purposed. Won't you
give me that shoe, Sally?"
"No, Joe, I'm going to keep it; and- as sure as
you cut up another shine, I'll show it."




288 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
Joe's reformation was radical this time, and
Sally ventured to riarry him. Years after -when
Mrs. Griffin —Sally Rhines was visiting her. In
hunting over her drawers to find a pattern of a
baby's dress, she came across the shoe, and then it
came out. She gave it to the baby to play with.
"I should be afraid to give it to him," said MIrs.
Rhines, " for fear he'd catch something, and go to
cutting up shines when he grows up."




CHARLIE IN THE SHIP-YARD.      289
CHAPTER XX.
THE FIRST TROUBLE, AND THE FIRST PRAYER.
BEING somewhat lonely in the absence of Charlie, Ben employed himself in getting timber to
build a scow, that he meant to construct with a
mast, sails, and a sliding-keel, or, as they are now
termed, centre-boards, to take cattle and hay to and
from Griffin's Island.
Uncle Isaac and Captain Rhines came on New
Year's Day. They told Ben and Sally it was so
cold, and the weather uncertain, that they needn't
expect to see them again till April.
The next day, Danforth Eaton and two more
came and hired the Perseverance. Ben told them,
when they were done with her, to leave her in
Captain Rhines's Cove.
They were now left entirely alone. During the
latter part of the same week, Ben, who had been
out gunning all day, crawling round on the rocks,
and getting wet, complained at night of pain in
his head and back, and of chilliness. He made use
19




290 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
of the usual remedies for a cold, but without avail.
He continued to grow worse rapidly, and'it was
evident that he was to have a run of fever. Sally
was in great extremity, her husband dangerously
sick, neither physician nor medicine at hand, - save
those simple remedies that necessity had taught
our mothers, - with two children, one a baby, a
stock of cattle to take care of, and utterly alone as
respected any human aid. It was a bitter thought
to her, as she sat listening to the wanderings of her
husband she tenderly loved, and for whom she had
sacrificed so much, that, while so rich in fiiends,
all were ignorant of their necessity.
" If they only knew it at home," said she to herself, "how  soon should I see the Perseverance's
sails going up,. and help coming!"
Sally had not what is sometimes termed a religious temperament. There was no sentiment about
her. She was extremely conscientious in respect
to keeping the Sabbath, or making light of serious
things, was very decided in all her convictions, and
never temporized. If it was wrong to do anything,
it was wrong, and that was the end of it with her.
She never read religious books from choice,- like
many who never arrive at any satisfactory results
in religious matters, - but only as a duty, as she




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.  291
did the Bible. She never cared to hear religious
conversation, and, though she listened with the
greatest respect to her mother in relation to these
subjects, it went in at one ear and out at the other.
Uncle Isaac's description of her was perfect. She
was lively as a humming-bird, and had too good a
time of it in this world to think much about the
other. But under the terrible pressure that now
came upon her, the resolute nature and iron frame
of the true-hearted, loving woman began to give
way.
With the exception of some large logs for back
logs, the wood which was cut was exhausted, and
she was obliged to dig it from the snow and cut it.
The great fireplace was so deep, it was impossible to keep the room warm without a large log to
bring the fire forward, and throw the heat into the
room. These logs, which were three feet through,
Sally hauled into the house on a hand-sled, and
rolled into the fireplace, then cut up the rest of the
wood to complete the fire.
The weather was intensely cold, the snow deep
and drifted, and she was obliged to drive the cattle
to the brook, and cut holes in the ice for them to
drink. In addition to all this was the care of
Bennie and the baby, the constant watching, and




292 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
sense of loneliness. What a commentary was this
upon the declaration of Uncle Isaac to Ben, in
reply to the expression of his fears lest the untried
hardships of Elm Island should prove too much for
Sally, -
"0, she's got the old iron nature of that breed
of folks. She's had nothing to call out that grit
yet; but you'll find out what she's made of when
she comes to be put to't."
Her husband was now so much reduced that it
was with the greatest difficulty she could hear his
requests, and the apprehension that lie would die,
which had tortured her for weeks, now seemed
ripening into certainty.
It was just before midnight. Ben had lain since
morning in a stupor, from which it seemed impossible to rouse him, and, being nearly high water,
she feared he would die when the tide turned.
It was a fearful night. The roar of the sea on
the rocks, with that hoarse, pitiless sound which
pertains to the surf, and the hollow moan of the
wind in the forest was heard all through the house.
Sally had been taught to say her prayers from
childhood, but never in all her life had she prayed
in her own words. But now, as she sat with the
Bible upon her knees, and her eye caught the




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.  293
promise, "Ask and ye shall receive," something
seemed to whisper, "Pray, poor woman, pray."
"Had I shown any gratitude for His mercies,"
thought she, "I might with more confidence resort
to Him in trouble."  At length, driven to despair,
she fell on her knees beside the bed, and begged for
mercy and help firom heaven. " I am glad I did it,"
said Sally, as she rose from her knees; " I think I now
know something of what I have heard mother say
— that the best place to carry a sore heart is to the
cross. I don't know what God will do with me,
but I feel more willing to be in His hands. What
a strange thing praying is! If you don't get what
you ask, you get comfort. It kind of takes the
sting out. It's like' as when I was burnt so awfully, and the fire was out; the anguish is abated,
though the wound is not healed. 4 will pray more,
and trust more."  She spent the remainder of the
night in prayer and reading the Scriptures.
The wind, shortly after midnight, had changed
to north-west, and, though bitterly cold, it became
clear. As the light of morning struggled through
the windows, Sally scraped the thick coating of
fiost fiom the panes, that she might see her husband's face, and eagerly scanned the pallid features.
"6 He certainly does not look so death-like," thought




294 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
she, " is not feverish at all, and he certainly breathes
better." In the course of an hour, he made a sign
for drink. She put it to his lips, and found that he
swallowed. A short time after, she gave him some
nourishment, which he also took. When a couple
of hours had passed, he opened his eyes. She bent
her ear to his lips, and asked him how he felt.
1" Better," was the reply, in a voice scarcely audible.
It was the first word he had spoken for two days.
"The fever has turned, I know it has! " she cried;
and falling on her knees, she poured out her heart
in gratitude to God. Just then the child waked.
"0O, you blessed little soul," cried the delighted,
mother, almost smothering it with kisses, "did
you know your father was better?" And tying
the young child in a chair, and giving it some playthings, she caught the milk-pail. As she opened
the door, a ray of sunshine flashed in her face, and
streamed across the threshold. "Bless God!"
cried she, tears of gladness streaming down her
cheeks; "it's sunshine in my heart this morning."
"How are you all?" said Sally, as she entered
the barn, and, mounting with rapid steps the mow,
pitched down a bountiful foddering to the cattle.
"Put that into you; it's Thanksgiving on this
island to-day."  While Sailor, catching the altered




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.  295
looks and tone of his mistress, barked, and ran
into the snow till nothing but the end of his tail
was to be seen.
"How  strong I feel this morning! " she exclaimed, roll;ng an enormous log on to the handsled; "I'll make this old fireplace roar. I'll have
some light in this room, so that I can see Ben's
face. I have not dared to look at him for a month
past," catching a cloth, wet with hot water, and
washing the frost from the windows. "I'll wash
up this floor, too; it is dirty enough to plant potatoes on; and then I'll have a nap."
In the afternoon, Ben awoke in the full possession of his faculties, though extremely weak, and
in a whisper asked for the baby; he then asked for
Sailor. Sally had kept the dog in the outer room,
that he might not disturb her husband; but the
moment she opened the door, he leaped on the
bed, and licked his master's hands and face, and
then, rolling himself into a ball at his feet, went to
sleep, occasionally opening one eye to see if his
master was there.
It was now the first of March. The brigantine
General Knox, Edward Hiller, master, was working
her way to the eastward. She was homeward
bound from Matanzas, having lain in Portland




296 TIIE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
during a severe gale, where she had discharged
her cargo. A heavy sea was still running, and
the vessel, close hauled on the wind, and under
short sail, being light, was knocking about at a
great rate. Captain Hiller had been from boyhood
a deep-water sailor, but, having married the year
before, took a smaller vessel, traded to the West
Indies in winter, and coasted in the summer. He
was now bound home for a summer's coasting,
having his brother Sam for mate, and a crew
composed of his neighbors' boys, two of whom,
John Reed and Frank Wood, were his cousins.
Captain Hiller was amusing himself with humming
the old capstan ditty, -
"Storm along, my hearty crew,
Storm along, stormy," -
in tones which sounded like a nor'wester, whistling
through  a grommet-hole, at times varying his
occupation by sweeping the horizon with his glass.
At length he said to the man at the helm,"John, what island is that' on the lee bow? "
"Don't know, sir."
"I'll ask our Sam: he is pilot all along shore,
and knows every rock, and everybody. Sam,
come aft here."




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.   297
"Ay, ay, sir."
"What island is that to leeward?"
"Elm Island, captain."
" Does anybody live there? "
" Yes, sir; Ben Rhines."
"What Ben Rhines?"
"Him they call Lion."
"That can't be, Sam: he took his father's ship
when the old man gave up; there ain't his equal
along shore. I've been "shipmates" with him:
he wouldn't be living on such a place as that."
" It is so, captain; he was offered the ship; but
like another man I know of, that is a relation to
me, he fell in love with a pretty girl, who vowed
she wouldn't marry him if he went to sea. And
so he bought that island, married the girl, and has
turned farmer. There's some trouble there; I can
see a woman on the beach, and she has got a petticoat-that's the flag of all nations-on an oar, and
is making signals."
"If my old shipmate is in trouble, I'm  there.
Keep her off for the island, John. Flow the main
sheet, and set the colors in the main rigging, and
then she'll know we see her signals."
The vessel, with the wind free, increased her
speed, but not sufficiently to suit the impatience
of the noble-hearted seaman, who exclaimed, -




298 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
"Shake the reefs out of the mainsail! loose the
fore-topsail! Why, how slow you move to help a
neighbor! Sam, do you know the way in there?
It seems to be all breakers."
"I know the way, captain; there's water enough."
"Then shove her in: we'll soon know what's the
matter."
Ben, propped up with pillows, and now able to
converse, received with heartfelt joy his old shipmate, who sat down beside him, while the young
men gazed with awe upon the great bones and
muscles, made prominent by the wasting of the
flesh, and called to mind the wonderful stories they
had heard of his strength.
" What do you think of that, boys, for a lion's
paw?" said the captain, taking up Ben's right arm,
and showing it to the astonished group. "Now,
Mrs. Rhines," said he, " do you get a couple of
axes, and John and Frank will cut some wood,
while Sam and myself get your husband up, and
put some clean clothes on him, and I will shave
him; then you can make the bed, and we will put
him back; for I suppose he has not been moved
since he was taken -sick."
"No,  said Sally; "it was impossible for me to
move him."




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.   299
These strong and willing hands soon put a new
face on matters. With a roaring fire in the old
fireplace, clean linen on the bed, the house put to
rights, Ben shaved, and his spirits excited by hope,
everything seemed cheerful.
"Frank," said the captain, "go aboard, and in
my berth you'll find a pot of tamarinds and a box
of guava jelly; they'll be just the stuff for him: I
got them fresh in Mlatanzas."
"Frank," said Sam, "get a couple dozen oranges
out of my chest."
"Don't you do it, Frank," said John Reed; "get
them out of mine: he is courting a girl; but I ain't
so happy. I haven't anybody to give mine to."
"Captain," said Ben, " you will dine with us."
"By no means."
"Yes; I insist upon it," said Sally; "such friends
as you don't grow on every bush."
"But, Mrs. Rhines, you are worn out with labor
and anxiety."
"I waes; but that is all gone now."
"Well," said the captain, who perceived that a
refusal would do more harm than good, "we will
go on board, and get our dinners; your husband,
who has had quite enough fatigue for once, will
sleep; then we will come to supper, take care of




300 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
the cattle, and some of us will sit up with Mr.
Rhines; you will get a good night's rest, and then
will be all right. To-morrow we will go over and
get your folks. I should not feel right to leave
you alone."
The next morning the brig's boat went over, and
brought back Sam Hadlock, his mother, and Sally
Merrithew. Captain Rhines followed, in his own
boat, with Uncle Isaac, and they brought cooked
victuals enough for a small army. The news
spread, and by night the house was full.
"Who will take the Perseverance, and go to
Portland for the boys, if they are well paid for it?"
asked Captain Rhines.
"I," replied Joe Griffin; " but not for pay."'
I'And I," said Henry.
"And I, too," said Joe Merrithew.
In less than an hour the swift little craft was
cleaving the waves, her sheets well aft, the smoke
pouring from the wooden chimney into the clew of
the foresail, and the spray freezing as fast as it came
on board.
When Charlie came, he was so shocked by the
emaciated appearance of Ben, and the alteration
in Sally, who had grown pale and thin, that he
burst into tears.




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.   301
"Charlie," said Sally, as they sat together, after
the rest had retired, and Ben was asleep, "do you
remember that the first night you came here, you
said your mother's dying counsel to you was, when
trouble came, to pray to God, and He would take
care of you?"
" Yes, mother."
"' Do you ever pray now?"
"I say the Lord's prayer; and the first time I
went on to my land after it was mine, I thanked
the Lord, or tried to; but I've been so happy here,
that I have not prayed as I did before. Don't you
think," said he, fairly getting into. her lap, "' that
we are more for praying when we are in a tight
place? 
"Yes, Charles; and so the better God uses us,
the worse we use Him. The night you came here,
a poor outcast boy, like drift-wood flung on the
shore, you said you thought God had forgotten
you; and now that he has given you a mother in
me, and a father in Ben, and a brother in John,
you have forgotten Him."
" 0, mother, I know I am a wicked, ungrateful
boy."
"No more so than the rest of us. Since you
left home, I have suffered all but death; but I




302 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
have also experienced a great joy. When Ben
was first taken sick, he had a high fever; then
he was out of his head; after that he went into a
sog. At last there came a night, 0, what a night!
I could scarce get wood to keep from freezing; the
sea roared as though it would come into the house;
I thought Ben would die before morning. As I
sat here, just where I do now, something seemed
to say,' There's no help for you on this earth; look
to God!' I did look to God; and I made a promise that I mean to keep! I looked for Ben to die
when the tide turned; and such horrible thoughts
as passed through my mind, that I could not move
him from the bed, nor bury him; and to be here
alone with a corpse! but when the day broke, I
saw he was better. What sweet joy and love
sprang up in my heart! You must pray to God
this night, this moment, Charlie."
"I will do anything you want me to, mother."
"You must do it because it is right, not because
I want you to."
" I feel ashamed to, when I think how good He
has been to me, and how meanly I have used Him;
but if you will pray for me right here, I will pray
for myself when I go to bed."
When Ben had regained in some measure his
strength, Sally told him all her heart.




FIRST TROUBLE AND FIRST PRAYER.   303
"These things," replied he, "are not new to
me. In boyhood, yes, even in childhood, they
were familiar to and grew up with me. There
are trees growing on our point that were bushes
when I prayed under them. After I went to sea,
these impressions faded out; but the death of John
brought them back; and since I have left off drinking spirit, they have increased in power. The day
before I was taken sick, as I lay on the rocks
watclhing for birds, and thinking of John, and how
quick he went, the thought, Are you ready to follow him? came in my mind with such distinctness,
that I turned round to see who spoke to me. On
the rocks, right there, I cried to God, which I had
not done since I was fifteen. I think I see men as
trees walking; and I mean to follow after the little
glimmering of light that I have."
Ben now improved, the great bones were again
clothed with flesh, and the sinews regained their
tremendous power.
In a fortnight the boys retulrned to their work,
Charlie having filled the shed with dry wood, and
the door-yard with green, cut for the fire. He
also left a boy of fifteen to take care of the cattle
till Ben recovered his strength.
The good impression produced by sickness upon




V304 THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND.
both Ben and Sally was not confined to them,
but extended to Captairi Rhines, Seth Warren,
Joe Griffin, John, and Fred, and was the means of
bringing Uncle Isaac to make a public profession
of faith, for which he had never before felt himself
qualified. Captain Rhines, after a severe struggle, gave up the use of spirit. Before the boys
separated, Fred told them he had done so well
that summer, he meant to get timber in the winter,
build a store in the spring, and make a T to the
wharf, that vessels might lie safely there in any
weather.
Reluctantly these youthful fiiends, whose aspirations and sympathies mingled like the interlacing
of green summer foliage, parted each of them to
their different places of labor.  The next and
concluding volume of the series, THE HARDSCRABBLE OF ELM ISLAND, will inform our readers
how they bore.themselves in life's battle, when
its responsibilities began to press upon their young
shoulders, cares and trials to thicken around them,
and when called to discharge sterner tasks, and
face greater perils than they had yet encountered.