"What was the trouble with her?" asked Thad, who considered the skipper competent to put any thing to rights about a boat.
"She was ballasted so that she carried a lee helm," answered Dory, as solemnly as though he settled the fate of a nation by his words.
"Carried a lee helm!" exclaimed Dick Short. "Is that what the matter was?"
"Carried a lee helm!" repeated Thad. "That was bad!"
"Carried a lee helm! If it was bad for her, she ought to have left her lee helm on shore."
"What did she carry it for?" asked Nat Long.
"She carried it because she couldn't leave it behind," replied Dory. "It is a bad habit, such as some men carry with them through life, for the reason that they can't get rid of it."
"I say, Dory, what is a lee helm?" asked Thad. "You know that we don't know any thing more about sailing a boat than we do about making a watch."
"You used to sail Mr. Jones's boat: but we never went with you then, Dory; and we never had any chance to learn how to sail a boat," added Corny. "I have no more idea what a lee helm is than I have what the man in the moon had for dinner to-day."
"That's what's the matter with all of us," added Thad, laughing.