"And you know what a model is," Polly reminded the two younger boys.
"Well, it's a queer riddle, but it may be all right," admitted Ward. "Now let Larry tell one."
Larry scratched his head and said he would have to take a little time. While he was thinking he tightened up several screws and nuts on the engine and changed the position of the rudder slightly.
"Ha!" he said at last, clearing his throat so deeply that he made Margy jump. "I recollect a good one now! What is the resemblance between a part of the year and a sailor?"
"Part of the year?" echoed Ward. "What part?"
"Any part you like," Larry answered promptly.
This was one of those deceiving riddles that sounded easy and was not. Margy was sure she had solved it, and she offered her answer before any one else was ready to report.
"Because they're both stormy?" she asked Larry.
Artie protested that a sailor wasn't stormy and Margy confessed that she had been thinking of the sea, not the sailor.
"Maybe it is because they have ragged sailors," Jess submitted. "I mean when the flowers come, you know," she hastened to explain. "And some sailors are ragged."