The Young Ship Builders of Elm Island 25

The Young Ship Builders of Elm Island 25

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 off.

 

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 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.”

 

“O, 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, twenty-four 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.”

 

“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.”

 

“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.”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XVI.

 

WHY CHARLIE DIDN’T 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 ran over to Uncle Isaac’s Point. He

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 the water, that he might put his boat off

at anchor, when he espied the 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 Uncle Isaac came on to Elm Island to announce the

arrival of the Ark in Havana, but the good news had driven it all out

of his head till too late.

 

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. He was more

than three times the length of the canoe from the boat, when, he knew

not how or wherefore, the birch in a moment slid from under him, and

instantly righting, went gayly off before the wind towards Elm Island.

 

With a wild, astonished look, he swam to the boat, and, pulling up

the anchor, caught the canoe, expecting to find her half full of

water; but there was not a drop in her. “That is curious enough,”

said Charlie. He was now in a fine plight to go visiting! His new

beaver (three-cornered), his ruffled-bosomed shirt (the first he

had ever owned), and his new waistcoat and breeches, and steel

shoe-buckles--for with some of his venture-money he had treated himself

to a go-to-meeting suit--were 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?”

 

“Overboard;” and he told him the story. “Are you busy, Uncle Isaac?”

 

“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

starlight.”

 

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 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 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.