Ben marked the place. “You had better go in now, Charlie, and rest till dinner-time, and cool off.”
Charlie’s Big Job.—[Page 56.]
“I ain’t a bit tired,” said the proud, resolute boy; but Ben made him go in, when he found, after the excitement was over, that an hour or two of rest did not come amiss, for he laid down before the fire, and, falling asleep, did not wake till dinner-time. After dinner he began to dig it out, and, under Ben’s direction, hewed off a good deal of the outside. Ben then took it on his shoulder, and carried it into the front room, so that he could work on it rainy days and evenings till it was done. He made the oars himself, and seats and thole-pins, and dug it out, so that it was very light for a canoe; and, for fear it might split, Ben made some oak knees and put in it. When put into the water she was found to be stiff, and row easy.
No captain was ever prouder of his new ship than was Charlie of his canoe. It was his own (the first thing he had ever owned), and by the best possible right, for he had made it from the stump.
“There’s a mechanical principle in that boy, Ben,” said Joe; “do you see how naturally he takes to tools, and what good proportions there is to them oars, and how true the bevel is on the blades, and how neat he cut the head and stern boards into that canoe?”
There was nothing Charlie now longed for so much as a calm day. In the mean time he made himself a fisherman’s anchor. He took an oak limb, which was a little sweeping, made it flat, and broader than it was thick, and sharpened the ends; then he procured a crotch, and boring two holes in the flat piece, put a flat stone, larger a little than the piece of flat wood, edgeway upon it, and run the two forks of the crotch down each side of the stone, and through the holes, and wedged them, and put a wooden pin through to hold them. When this was thrown overboard, the sharp points of the wood would stick into the bottom, and the weight of the stone would hold them there. The stone, being so much larger than the cross-piece of wood, always brought the wood into the ground. These anchors, when the bottom is rocky, are much better than iron ones, as you can pull them out of the rocks, or pull them to pieces; and they will hold a boat as long as it is safe to stay, or smooth enough to fish; whereas an iron one will often stick fast in the rocks, and you must cut your cable. Hence these sort of anchors are much used by fishermen who are often round the rocks; besides, they cost nothing but the making.
The pleasant day came at last; by light Charlie was on the fishing-ground, all in sight of the house. By two o’clock in the afternoon he was rowing home with three hundred weight of fish. A prouder boy there never was, as he came home before a pleasant southerly wind, not having to pull any, only just to steady the boat with the oars. Every few moments he kept looking over his shoulder to see if anybody saw him; but Ben and Joe were where they could not see him. By and by he saw Sally come to the door and look; he put his cap on an oar, and held it up; she waved her hand to him, caught up some dry brush, and ran in. Presently he saw a black smoke. “She’s putting on the tea-kettle to get me a good hot supper. Won’t it go good? for haven’t I earned it?” said he, as he glanced at the codfish, some of which he had hard work to master, and get into the boat, they were so large. By the time he had eaten his supper and dressed his fish, the men came in from their work, when he received many and well-deserved praises for his day’s work.