"Oh! do mind!" cried Dot.
"Oh, yes! I shall mind," said the boy importantly; "but what a bother it is that the steam doesn't come. We'll bring a bottle of boiling water out of the kitchen with us next time."
"Yes," said Dot; "that will be the best way."
"And I shall take off the hatch——"
"What's a hatch?" asked Dot.
"Oh! what silly things girls are!" said the Skipper.
"That they're not," cried Dot, "I know. Of course: it's that box lid you open in the floor."
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the Skipper boisterously. "Box lid in the floor! Why, it's the hatch; and it isn't the floor, it's the deck; and I shall take it off and fill the hold with little lumps of coal."
"Oh, yes! I know that. It's called the 'hold' because it holds so much."
The boy took no notice, but went on:—"And I must have a big gun, like there is in front of Pa's ship, and a powder-magazine."