"In rough weather the bonnet makes it all the rougher," added Dory. "The bonnet is a continuation of the jib, laced to the lower part of the sail. Taking off the bonnet amounts to the same thing as reefing the sail."
"Reefing the sail is taking in a part of the sheet by tying it up in a fold," said Nat Long, looking very wise.
"Not much!" answered the skipper.
"That's what my father told me; and he is a deck-hand on board of the Champlain," persisted Nat.
"I don't believe he said any thing of the kind, Nat. Taking up a part of the sheet by tying it into a fold would be a queer operation. Do you run away with the idea that the jib is a sheet?"
"I don't run away with the idea; but of course a sail is a sheet."
"Not at all. This is a sheet," answered Dory, raising the main sheet, the end of which he held in his left hand, while he steered with his right.
"How can that be a sheet when it is a rope?" demanded Nat incredulously.
"You are thinking of the sheets between which you sleep. In a boat all sheets are ropes. This is the main sheet, because it is fastened to the main boom,—the stick at the lower part of the sail. This is the jib sheet," continued Dory, indicating the rope attached to the lower part of the jib, which led aft into the standing-room, where the helmsman could haul it in or let it off as occasion required.
"There is a man hailing us from the shore," said Thad, as Pearl Hawlinshed called to Dory from the railroad.