“Ah! he’s going to ‘cast the lead’ in proper fashion, just as sailors do when they want to find out how deep the sea is,” explained Master Gyseburn. “Don’t forget that this is the Shipwrights’ pageant, and they are learned in all seafaring business, as you may imagine.”
“Yes! he’s unwinding the line!” cried Colin; “and I suppose he finds that the water has gone down? He can see the tops of the mountains now—can’t he?”
“The whole of the mountains, I should think!” returned Master Gyseburn, laughing. “Listen! he’s going to speak.”
“Now forty days are fully gone (Noah began),
Send a raven I will anon;
If aught were earth, tree, or stone,
Be dry in any place.
And, if this fowl come not again,
It is a sign, sooth to say,
That dry it is, on hill and plain,