"We thought you'd say so, and so we took exact measurements, and can make a deck here, and fasten it on down there."
"All right; now, how do you think we'd better fasten the boat to the sledge?"
"That's where we want you to help us decide. I don't believe its weight is great enough to hold it firm."
"It's the first thing to be arranged," said Aleck, "and after dinner I guess we'll have to go down to the wharf."
An hour later the three boys were standing beside the boat, gazing first at it and then at the pair of strong bobs they had brought along.
"We must take that coasting-board off the bobs and put in a heavy reach-pole pretty near as long as the boat, that's certain," said Tug.
"And," spoke up Jimmy, "we've got to prop her up on the sledge so she'll stand even, and won't tip."
"Yes, you're both right," Aleck agreed. "The best way is to saw chairs out of two-inch plank which will just fit her bottom, and in which she will sit solidly."
"But," Tug broke in, "that won't hold her firm in the racket she has to go through. She must be bound down to that sledge, and I reckon the best way is to draw bands of stout canvas—big straps would cost too much—over the boat, from one side of the sledge to the other."