CHAPTER IV
ANCHOR WEIGHED
Mr. Wing rose from the little table that had been spread in the saloonand said, "We'll break the anchor out with the jib as soon as Breckhas eaten. I hate this old engine like poison, though she's a good oldgirl in case of emergency. But I have made it a rule not to use herunless it is really necessary."
"What in the world is a jib?" queried Frances with a puzzledexpression. "I thought it was some part of your face because my smallbrother used to say 'If you don't shut up, Sis, I'll bust you one inthe jib.'"
"In this case, it is the sail that is fastened on the bowsprit. Thereare a lot of things to learn on a boat, but don't give up because,before the cruise is over, you girls are going to be able to sail theship by yourselves and we men can take it easy; isn't that right,Jack?" and Mr. Wing went up on deck to uncover the wheel.
Mabel advised her friends to stay below until the "Boojum" was wellunder way. There was always a great deal of excitement on deckwhenever they left a harbor and it might be just as well for allconcerned if they kept out of the way until they got the hang ofthings nautical.
Ellen borrowed "The Hunting of the Snark" from Charlie and announcedthat she was going to curl up on the transom in the saloon and becomefamiliar enough with it by supper to beat the others at their owngame.
"She starts, she moves, she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel,"
sang Frances, "and I've just simply got to go up on deck and see whatit looks like when we are going. Is it all right for me to go up now,Mabel?"
Just then Mr. Wing and Jack settled the question by sticking theirheads down the hatch and demanding the presence of the girls on deck.Charlie was at the wheel and Breck was mopping up the slime that theanchor chain had made on deck.
"Mabel, will you take the wheel?" asked Charlie in coaxing tones. "Iwant to catch a smoke and it's against the rules for the man at thewheel to smoke."
"Give that buoy a good berth, daughter," advised her father.
Mabel smiled her assent, for she knew the little harbor as well as herfather, and though she had piloted the "Boojum" out some dozen timesshe always got exactly the same warning about the bobbing red buoy.
The "Boojum" slipped gracefully through the water, with all her sailspulling. Smaller sail boats crossed her bow and their occupants gailywaved handkerchiefs and hands to the little group on the "Boojum."
Jack's lazy length was stretched on a striped deck mattress, whileEllen, seated near him on a cushion, watched him with thoughtful andadmiring eyes, for in Frances' breezy western slang, Jack was "easy tolook at." Charlie talked to his fiancee and Mr. Wing pored over achart, mapping out a course from New London to Newport. Jane andFrances, the two irrepressibles, unhampered by being in love, hadelected to sit as far out on the bow as they could without actuallystraddling the bowsprit. They liked the sting of the salt spray ontheir faces. Frances pointed to where Mr. Wing was reading the chartand then she and Jane began in chorus:
"He had brought a large map representing the sea Without the least vestige of land; And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be A map they could all understand."
Mr. Wing laughed and, not to be outdone, went on with the ridiculoustale:
"'What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators, Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?' So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply: 'They are merely conventional signs.'"
But Mabel interrupted him:
"'Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes! But we've got our brave Captain to thank.' So the crew would protest--'that he's bought us the best-- A perfect and absolute blank!'
"And now Daddy you come on and take your wheel because here comes atug and it has three tows. It always scares me to death to meet oneof those old tugs," Mabel explained to Jane and Frances as she floppeddown beside them. "They are absolutely unscrupulous--just like roadhogs--always running into yachts on the sound. Whew! it's good to seeyou kids again. Wouldn't it be terrible if there would ever be asummer when some of us wouldn't see each other?" she paused solemnly.
"You talk exactly as though you weren't going to marry your fatCharlie in November," teased Frances. "You will live in Lexington nearJane and that won't be so bad, but how about me away out on the ranch?And it looks as if, in the course of time, that Ellen will come andlive reasonably near Jane, too."
"Well, my good spinster friend, Frances," laughed Jane, "I reckon thatas long as we are in the same boat we will have to start a tea-room ora poultry farm or some other stupid thing that unloved old maids do.Oh! the tragedy of being an old maid at twenty, and the pain made moreterrible by the fact that we see the happiness of our friends soplainly."
"And it will be ever thus, Plain Jane, for where could we ever find aman worthy of our splendid selves?" asked Frances. "They all fall forme, of course, but I can't give them any encouragement, knowing myown value as I do."
"If we get to Lloyd's Harbor in time for a swim to-night, I am goingto duck you both," threatened Mabel, who was a veritable fish. "In themeantime, I'll just get Charlie to make a cat o' nine tails for me.Poor child, he will need the protection as much I do."
"Who needs protection?" asked Charlie, who had come forward to sheetin the staysail.
"You," Frances promptly replied, getting a sharp dig from Mabel'selbow in reward for her truthfulness. "Wow! Mabel, I thought you weretoo well cushioned to hurt."
"Push their noses in, Mabel," advised Charlie, "and when you havefinished, bring Jack and Ellen down to earth and tell them to go belowand put on their bathing suits. Lloyd's Harbor is just around thatpoint and we will make it in about fifteen minutes. Soon as we dropanchor, we all want to go over the side. This harbor is a dandy placeto swim."
The girls dashed below, scrambled into their suits and returned totheir place forward to find that the "Boojum" was nosing its way intoone of the loveliest little harbors on the eastern coast. One side ofthe mouth of the harbor was marked by a high bit of wooded land thatsloped gently down to the curved sandy beach.
"The wonderful smell that is in the air," Ellen whispered to Jack. "Iimagine lotus flowers are like that. The land where it is alwaysafternoon. Why, I could stay here forever and ever."
"And I would have to be with you, for lotus-eaters forget all the pastand dream and dream away their lives, and I don't want to be forgottenfor one little minute."
"I wouldn't worry about that, Jack. I couldn't forget you for aninstant, not if I ate lotus for years and years."
"Hey, you Jack, stop talking sweet nothings. Mr. Wing has called youthree times to see that the anchor is ready to heave over," and Janegave her brother a shove in the direction of the anchor.
"For heaven's sake, Jane, I wish you would look at Breck! What onearth can he be doing?" Frances pointed to where Breck was leaningover the hand-rail earnestly spitting, with Mr. Wing eagerly watching.
"Mr. Wing," called Jane, "is there anything I can do for Breck? Lemonis awfully good for seasickness, Aunt Min says."
Mr. Wing's fat face turned purple with the effort not to laugh andBreck finally chuckled.
"Ridiculous, Jane," said the "Boojum's" owner, "that is the sailor'sbest method of telling whether a ship has lost her way or not. Yousee, you don't want to drop anchor while the ship is still moving, andif you spit over the side you can tell easily how fast you are going."
"Well, no wonder I didn't understand! Who would?" demanded Jane.
"It was a perfectly natural mistake, Miss Pellew," said Breck.
"Jane, as a Camp Fire Girl, you should thoroughly approve of theinfinite resources of nature," teased Frances.
"I do think it is an awfully good idea, but, didn't it look funny?"agreed Jane.
"Breck, you better let out a little more chain," ordered Mr. Wing."And Jane, I'm going to show you and Frances how to let down thedinghy from the davits, so you girls can be independent of Charlie andJack. There is not much chance of getting tho
se two to do anything forany girls except Mabel and Ellen and there might be a time when youwould want to take the boat when Breck and I were ashore."
Frances and Jane lowered away at the ropes, taking care, in accordancewith Mr. Wing's advice, to let the stern hit the water before the bowso as not to ship any water.
"Watch me, Plain Jane, and profit by my courage," cried Frances,grabbing a rope and sliding down it into the water.
"Rather get my head in first," said Jane; and her body shot out fromthe hand-rail, describing an arc before she sank into the water,leaving barely a ripple.
"Great stuff, you kids, but I am too fat and have to wend mymiddle-aged way down the sea-ladder," and Mr. Wing did it.
Soon all of them were in, Frances, Mabel and Jane, romping around likeyoung seals, Mabel pursuing the other two, round and round the"Boojum" in her efforts to duck the two teasers.
"It's terrible just to be able to do this silly little side stroke,"wailed Ellen to Mr. Wing and Jack, "when all the other girls swim thetrudgeon, double overarm and Australian crawl just likeprofessionals."
"Come on, Jack, let's teach her," said the father of one of the enviedducks.
The two men started teaching Ellen the difficult feat of breathingwith the head on one side when the arm comes up for the stroke andexhaling with the head under water. Ellen strangled and splutteredabout for a while, as beginners do, time after time, reversing theorder and breathing in under water and choking when she came up forthe breath she was unable to take. After patience on the part of thepupil and teachers, she began making noble attempts to combine thebreathing with the actual stroke.
Jane and Frances had clambered up over the stern of the dinghy whichhad been made fast at the end of the lowered boat-boom and wereengaged in a spirited discussion of the value of salt water swimmingand the value of fresh water swimming.
"Frances, look! Did you ever see such a beauty in your life?" Janegasped as she watched a tall, broad-shouldered, slender-hipped figurein a maroon swimming suit poise itself on the extreme end of thebowsprit before making the most perfect jack-knife dive either of thegirls had ever seen.
"Whew! the brown of his legs and shoulders against that dark red ofhis suit was just too beautiful to be true," asserted Frances. "AndJane, do you know who it was? Well, it was Breck and he has no rightto be so gorgeous looking."
"He uses perfectly good English, whenever he speaks, which is seldom.What in the world do you suppose he is?" Jane asked.
"I think he is awfully interesting, and I wish I knew something abouthim. He makes such a point of being just one of the men employed byMr. Wing that I can't help feeling that he isn't an ordinary sailor,Jane."
"Well, probably if we hadn't seen him make that peach of a jack-knifeand he hadn't had that maroon bathing suit but some old faded greyone, we would probably never have given him a second thought, so let'sdon't anyway. Come on and get dressed, I am hungry as a shark." Janelightly dismissed the subject that interested her a great deal morethan she cared to admit.