The two boys took the basket, and proceeded to the canoe. John, feeling that as he was a native, and Charles a stranger, it was his duty to speak first, by way of breaking the silence, which was getting to be oppressive, said, “How old be you?”
“Fifteen,” was the reply.
“I’m fourteen,” said John; “shall be fifteen in July.”
“I shall be sixteen next Michaelmas.”
“What do you mean by Michaelmas, Charles?”
“Why, St. Michael’s Day, the 29th of September.”
“Well, what does it mean?”
“I don’t know. All I know is, that in England everybody that can get it eats a goose that day, and if you do you’ll have enough all the year round. Do you know how to row?”
“Yes; I can row cross-handed, and scull. Can you scull a gunning float?”
“I never saw one; what are they for?”