lpitating from curiosity, he was led up to the boat-bodied
wagon. Reluctantly he backed under the raised shafts. The practice-hitch
was enlivened by a monologue, on the part of Captain Bean, which ran
something like this:

"Now, Lank, pass aft that backstay [the trace] and belay; no, not there!
Belay to that little yard-arm [whiffle-tree]. Got it through the
lazy-jack [trace-bearer]? Now reeve your jib-sheets [lines] through them
dead-eyes [hame rings] and pass 'em aft. Now where in Tophet does this
thingumbob [holdback] go? Give it a turn around the port bowsprit
[shaft]. There, guess everything's taut."

The Captain stood off to take an admiring glance at the turnout.

"She's down by the bow some, Lank, but I guess she'll lighten when we
get aboard. See what you think."

Lank's inspection caused him to meditate and scratch his head. Finally
he gave his verdict: "From midships aft she looks as trim as a liner,
but from midships for'ard she looks scousy, like a Norwegian tramp after
a v'yage round The Horn."

"Color of old Barnacles don't suit, eh? No, it don't, that's so. But I
couldn't find no green an' white horse, Lank."

"Couldn't we paint him up a leetle, Cap'n?"

"By Sancho, I never thought of that!" exclaimed Captain Bean. "Course we
can; git a string an' we'll strike a water-line on him."

With no more ado than as if the thing was quite usual, the preparations
for carrying out this indignity were begun. Perhaps the victim thought
it a new kind of grooming, for he made no protest. Half an hour later
old Barnacles, from about the middle of his barrel down to his shoes,
was painted a beautiful sea-green. Like some resplendent marine monster
shone the lower half of him. It may have been a trifle bizarre, but,
with the sun on the fresh paint, the effect was unmistakably striking.
Besides, his color now matched that of the dory's with startling
exactness.

"That's what I call real ship-shape," declared Captain Bean, viewing
the result. "Got any more notions, Lank?"

"Strikes me we ought to ship a mast so's we could rig a sprit-sail in
case the old horse should give out, Cap'n."

"We'll do it, Lank; fust rate idee!"

So a mast and sprit-sail were rigged in the dory. Also the lines were
lengthened with rope, that the Captain might steer from the stern
sheets.

"She's as fine a land-goin' craft as ever I see anywhere," said the
Captain, which was certainly no extravagant statement.

How Captain Bean an