rottle to a steam-engine, which did all the hard
work.

Nat was delighted with his chance. With shining eyes he grasped the
spokes, and gently revolved the wheel a short distance.

"That'll do," spoke Mr. Weatherby. "She's shifted enough."

Nat noticed that, as he turned the wheel, the vessel changed her
course slightly, so readily did she answer the helm. It was a
wonderful thing, he thought, that he, a mere lad, could, by a slight
motion of his hands, cause a mighty ship to move about as he pleased.

"It's easier than I thought it was," he remarked to his friend the
pilot.

"You think so now," answered Mr. Weatherby, "but wait until you have
to handle a boat in a storm. Then the waves bang the rudder about so
that the wheel whirls around, and almost lifts you off your feet. More
than once it's gotten away from me, though, when there's a bad storm,
I have some one to help me put her over and hold her steady. I like
steam steering gear best, for it's so easy, but it's likely to get out
of order at a critical moment, and, before you can rig up the hand
gear, the boat has gone on the rocks."

"I hope we don't get wrecked on the rocks," said Nat, as, following
the directions he had received, he shifted the wheel slightly to keep
the vessel on her proper course.

"Well, we'll be approaching a dangerous passage in a few hours,"
replied the pilot. "There are a number of rocks in it, but I think
I'll be able to get clear of 'em. I always have, but this time we'll
arrive there after dark, and I like daylight best when I have to go
through there."

"Do you want to take the wheel now?" asked the boy, as he saw that Mr.
Weatherby was peering anxiously ahead.

"No, you may keep it a while longer. I just wanted to get sight of a
spar buoy about here. There it is. When you come up this route you
want to get the red and black buoy in line with that point, and then
go to starboard two points, so."

As he spoke Mr. Weatherby helped Nat put the wheel over. The big
freighter began slowly to turn, and soon was moving around a point of
land that jutted far out into the lake.

Nat remained in the pilot-house more than an hour, and, in that time,
he learned many valuable points. At the suggestion of his friend he
jotted them down in a note-book, so he might go over them again at his
leisure, and fix them firmly in his mind.

As the afternoon wore on, and dusk approached, a fog began to settle
over the lake. Nat, who had been e