"I've been thinkin' of jest that same thing, lad. You see I ain't used to anythin' but fishin', an' can't do more'n half a man's work at other jobs, so I'm allowin' to pull the pots alone to-morrow, same's I've done year in an' year out ever since settlin' down here. That will leave you boys free to help Reuben, an' I'm countin' on seein' a big pile of work done when I get back."
"That's what will happen," Tommy replied confidently, and then he began to help the cook that they might get to bed the earlier.
There were no laggards in the shanty next morning. It would not be time to attend to the traps until about the middle of the forenoon, because of the tide, therefore Uncle Ben took it upon himself to do the housework. Thus there was nothing to prevent the boys from getting at the task of wrecking as soon as breakfast was eaten, and the meal had been prepared before sunrise.
A hard master was Reuben Rowe. His desire to see the "Sally D." in a seaworthy condition was so great that it seemed as if neither himself nor any other could do as much work in a given time as he wished to see done, and the consequence was that he drove his assistants to the utmost of their powers, until Sam laughingly declared that he "begrudged the time it took them to draw their breath."
The plan was to excavate the sand from beneath the port side of the schooner, doing it in such a manner that the timbers could be set in place before she heeled over, and this was, as he said, "quite a nice piece of work."
Uncle Ben shoveled industriously until it was time for him to visit the traps, and then said cheerily as he pushed off in the dory:
"I'm allowin' to come back as soon as may be, an' I'm not sorry to get a breathin' spell. Pullin' lobster-pots is child's play 'longside of what Reuben expects his helpers to do, an' I'll be havin' what you might call a vacation. Keep steady at it, lads, for that's the way to win in a long race."
"An' you can make up your mind that we're counting on that same thing!" Reuben replied emphatically. "After we get the schooner on what you might call ways, so's there's no chance of her sinkin' any deeper in the sand, it'll be all right to take things a little easier, but till that's done it's a case of hustle all the time."
Then Uncle Ben pulled off from the shore, and the three laborers shoveled sand as if their very lives depended upon it, until Reuben finally announced:
"I'm thinkin' half an hour more will see us well along with this job, an' it hasn't been done any too quick, for the tide is beginnin' to come. If it catches us before the timbers are down all the work will go for nothin', 'cause it wouldn't take long for the sea to wash every grain of sand back where we've taken it from."