the mistake of putting a boat in the
masculine gender. You always say 'she' in speaking of a boat; and of
course she wears a bonnet when she goes out."

"But when the weather is bad you take the bonnet off; and that is not
the way the ladies do," suggested Thad.

"In rough weather the bonnet makes it all the rougher," added Dory. "The
bonnet is a continuation of the jib, laced to the lower part of the
sail. Taking off the bonnet amounts to the same thing as reefing the
sail."

"Reefing the sail is taking in a part of the sheet by tying it up in a
fold," said Nat Long, looking very wise.

"Not much!" answered the skipper.

"That's what my father told me; and he is a deck-hand on board of the
Champlain," persisted Nat.

"I don't believe he said any thing of the kind, Nat. Taking up a part of
the sheet by tying it into a fold would be a queer operation. Do you run
away with the idea that the jib is a sheet?"

"I don't run away with the idea; but of course a sail is a sheet."

"Not at all. This is a sheet," answered Dory, raising the main sheet,
the end of which he held in his left hand, while he steered with his
right.

"How can that be a sheet when it is a rope?" demanded Nat incredulously.

"You are thinking of the sheets between which you sleep. In a boat all
sheets are ropes. This is the main sheet, because it is fastened to the
main boom,--the stick at the lower part of the sail. This is the jib
sheet," continued Dory, indicating the rope attached to the lower part
of the jib, which led aft into the standing-room, where the helmsman
could haul it in or let it off as occasion required.

"There is a man hailing us from the shore," said Thad, as Pearl
Hawlinshed called to Dory from the railroad.

"I don't want to see that man," said Dory, recognizing the voice of the
disagreeable man from whom he had fled when he left the wharf.

"Do you know him?" asked Thad.

"I never saw him until this morning. He bid against me for this boat,
and he is mad because he didn't get it," replied the skipper. "I think
he means to do me mischief if he can, and he can't if I keep out of his
way."

He could not answer any questions without endangering his great secret.
He was on the point of tacking when he heard the call. To go up to the
wharf would be to fall into the company of Pearl, and he decided not to
do it. Instead of coming about, he let off the sheets, and headed the
Goldwing to the southward.

"You are going t