Mabel had been explaining to her young guests that Mr. Wing was taking the boat out a little short-handed because he wanted all of them to learn something about sailing. “Daddy says it is exactly twice as much fun if every man on board has some little work to do. I adore steering by a point of land, but I just can’t bear to do it by the compass.”
“Much as I hate to tell Aunt Min good-bye, I wish we would shove off. I am wild to see it on the inside.” Jane’s black eyes snapped at the prospect.
Soon the young people were seated in the dancing tender and, with many good-byes to Aunt Min, they scooted through the sparkling stretch of water that lay between them and the “Boojum.”
“Mabel, how in the world do you ever get over the side and up on deck?” asked Ellen uneasily.
“She is falling off a lot, I think,” defended Charlie.
“Goose, I didn’t mean that. I mean, how does anybody do it?”
“You see there is a little ladder that they hook on the side whenever people want to get off or on and when it isn’t being used, it is kept on deck,” Mabel explained.
Two men in spotless blue denim work suits appeared on the deck as Mabel finished speaking and lowered the sea ladder over the side of the “Boojum.”
“Jane, you go first,” whispered Ellen.
“The water is perfectly flat today, but there will be days when it won’t be, so you might just as well begin by being careful,” explained Mr. Wing. “Step in the middle of the boat, grab hold of the sides of the ladder and step up as lightly as you can because, if you give much of a spring from the tender, it is liable to push us away from the ‘Boojum’.”