oaster wagon down the hill at home."

He tied a rope on the front axle, close to each front wheel, and then,
by pulling on the cords, he could turn the wagon whichever way he wanted
to make it go.

"The mast is going to be hard," said Russ, and he and Laddie found it
so. They could not make it stand upright, and at last they had to call
on Daddy Bunker.

"Oh, so you're going to make a ship to sail on dry land, are you?" asked
their father, when they told him their troubles with the mast.

"Will it sail?" asked Laddie.

"Well, it may, a little way. The wind is very strong to-day. I'll help
you fix it."

With Daddy Bunker's aid, the mast was soon fixed so that it stood
straight up in front of the wagon, being nailed fast and braced. Then
they found some pieces of old bags for sails, and these were sewed
together and made fast to the mast. There was a gaff, which is the
little slanting stick at the top of a sail, and a boom, which is the big
stick at the bottom. Only the whole sail, gaff, boom and all, was not
very large.

"If you have your sail too big," said Daddy Bunker, "it will tip your
wagon over when the wind blows hard. Better have a smaller sail and go a
bit slower, than have an accident."

At last the sail was finished and hoisted on the mast. Russ and Laddie
took their places in the wagon, and Daddy Bunker turned it around so the
wind would blow straight from the back. The wagon stood on a smooth
part of the prairies, where the grass had been eaten short by the
hundreds of Uncle Fred's cattle.

"All ready, boys?" called their father to them.

"All ready!" answered Russ.

"All aboard!" answered Laddie. "I can say that this time, 'cause this is
really a ship, though it sails on dry land," he added.

"Yes, you can say that," agreed Russ.

"Here you go!" cried Daddy Bunker.

He gave the wind wagon a shove, and it began to move. Slowly it went at
first, and then, as the wind struck the sail, it began to send the toy
along faster.

"Hurray!" cried Russ. "We're sailing!"

"Fine!" shouted Laddie.

And the boys were really moving over the level prairie in the wind wagon
Russ had made. They could only go straight, or nearly so, and could not
sail much to one side or the other, as their land ship was not like a
water one. It would not "tack," or move across the wind.

Along they sailed, rather bumpily, it is true, but Russ and Laddie did
not mind that. Russ could pull on the ropes fast to the front