“That is just the way I feel. I only wanted to see what you would say.”
“My idea is just this,” said Charlie. “If we conclude to build her, go to work and set her up, pay our bills as we go along, and before the money quite runs out, stop and earn more. I’m one of those chaps that want to know just how I stand every Saturday night.”
“If we begin,” said John, “we’ve got to go ahead, for everybody within twenty miles will know it; and if we slump, we might as well leave the country.”
“I know just what they’ll say,” replied Charlie. “They’ll say, there’s a parcel of boys thinking they are going to build a vessel, and a nice piece of work they’ll make of it! lose what little they’ve earned, and find out they don’t know as much as they thought for. I wonder Captain Rhines and Ben allow them to do it!”
“That,” said John, “is just what was said when we undertook to carry on the farm; but they didn’t laugh when harvest-time came.”
“You say you want her two hundred tons, but you have said nothing about the dimensions.”
“I want her a great carrier, and as good a sea-boat as she can be and carry. I know enough to know that a vessel can’t be full and fast both; but there’s a medium, to hit which you know more about than I do; if you don’t, you know where to get information. I don’t care how rough she is. We can’t afford to do anything for looks. She can’t look worse than the Ark. I wish you could have heard all that was said when she went into Havana! Why, the darkies laughed and opened their mouths till I thought they never would shut them again. I couldn’t understand Spanish, but Flour told me what they said. All I have to say about dimensions is, I want her one hundred feet long, twenty-six feet beam, eight and a half feet deep. There is length enough for spars, depth enough for two tier of molasses. If you can make her any other than a great carrier with that breadth of beam, you’re welcome to. Where would you build her?”
“At my shore,” said Charlie. “The timber is at the water’s edge. Never was a better place to set a vessel.”
“But there’s no house where you could live.”
“Build a log house,” said Fred.