y on bicycle wheels instead of
skates. We can sail all over south Jersey on the thing. Come on down and
help me build it."

THE FRAME OF THE YACHT.

[Illustration: Fig. 215. The Backbone and Crosspiece.]

I followed him to the shed at the back of the school and found that he
had already procured a couple of scantlings for the frame of the boat.
The sticks were 2 inches thick and 4 inches wide. The backbone was cut
to a length of 10 feet, and a 5-foot link was sawed off for the
crosspiece. The two pieces were securely nailed together about 3 feet
from the forward end of the backbone. The crosspiece was set on edge,
but a notch was cut in it about 1 inch deep to receive the backbone. We
might have braced the frame with wooden braces, as in the ice boat, but
we thought that this time we would vary the design by using wire bracing
instead, thus making the frame much lighter. I asked Bill how he
proposed to tighten the wire. Turnbuckles were the thing, but I knew
that they were rather expensive.

"Just you leave that to me," said Bill. "I've a scheme that I think will
work out all right."

A SIMPLE TURNBUCKLE.

[Illustration: Fig. 216. An Eye Bolt.]

[Illustration: Fig. 217. Stretching the Guy Lines.]

At the hardware store of the town we bought a pound of No. 16 iron wire,
eight large screw eyes and six eye bolts, with nuts and washers. Both
the screw eyes and eye bolts had welded eyes and the shanks of the eye
bolts were 6 inches long. A pair of screw eyes were now threaded into
the backbone at each side about 18 inches from the end, and at each end
of the crosspieces an eye bolt was fastened. I began to see Bill's plan.
He was going to draw the wire taut by tightening up the nuts on the eye
bolts. To get the best effect the hole for the eye bolt had to be
drilled in on a slant, so that the bolt would pull directly in the line
of the wire. To get just the right angle we ran a cord from the screw
eye on one side to the point where the bolt was to be inserted, and
traced its direction on the crosspiece. The hole for the eye bolt was
now drilled parallel with the mark we had traced. The same was done at
the other end of the crosspiece. A pair of screw eyes were now screwed
into the backbone at the fore end and a pair of eye bolts were set at a
corresponding angle in the ends of the crosspiece. The crosspiece was
notched at each side so that the nuts and washers on the eye bolts would
have a square seating. Then