ifty helpers instead of three he could have had willing
aid at once. As it was, his friends selected four more to help put off
their boats, and the rest trudged slowly down the pier to form an
audience and look on, while under Tom Bodger's direction the damaged
boat was lashed by its thwarts to the fresh corners, and then set free
and thrust off the step.

The rest was easy. In a very short time she was rowed ashore, cast
loose again, and half a dozen men waded in knee-deep to run her up a few
feet at a time, the water escaping through the broken-out hole, till at
last she was high and--not dry, but free from water.

Then the mast was unstepped and with the other fittings laid aside,
while Tom Bodger had procured a basket of tools and the wood necessary
for the repairs, and the little crowd of fishermen formed themselves
into a smoking party, sitting upon upturned boats, fish boxes and
buckets, to discuss the damage and compare it with that sustained by
other boats as far back as they could remember. For Tom required no
further help then, save such as was given by Aleck, preferring to work
his own way, the idea being to make a temporary patchwork sufficient for
safety in getting the boat home.

To this end he measured and cut off, almost as skilfully as a ship's
carpenter--consequent upon old experience at home with boats and at sea
with the mechanic of a man-o'-war--a piece of board to form a fresh
thwart, which was soon nailed tightly on the remains of the old.

Then the hole in the bottom was covered with this boarding, laid
crosswise, the necessary fitting taking a great deal of time, so that
the afternoon was spent before help was needed, and plenty of willing
hands assisted in turning the boat right over, keel uppermost, ready for
the laying on of plenty of well-tarred oakum to cover the fresh inside
lining, Tom having a kettle of pitch over a wood fire, and paying his
work and the caulking liberally as he went on, whistling and chatting
away to Aleck the while, only pausing now and then to have a big sniff
and to inhale much of the smoke cloud his friends were making.

"I should like to stop and have a pipe mysen, Master Aleck," said Tom,
once.

"Well, have one; only don't be long, Tom."

"Nay, sir; I'll have it as we sails over, bime by. I won't stop now.
It's a long job, and it'll be quite dark afore I've done."

He fetched the pitch kettle from the little fire a fisherman had been
feeding with chi