On the following Monday afternoon, all hands were ordered to the boat-house after dinner, in place of going to the shops. The Lily, which the students had built in the earlier part of the year, had been brought alongside of the wharf by Bates and Mr. Bristol. The work of rigging the boat was to be begun at this time. On the wharf lay the two masts of the schooner, which had been made in Burlington, and brought down a few days before. There were several other sticks on the wharf, whose use most of the students did not understand. Lying on the top of the masts were a great number of small pieces of rope; and old Bates was as busy as a bee, with a lot of things which were incomprehensible to even the old students.
The principal was the instructor on the present occasion; for, of the subjects to be treated, the other teachers were as ignorant as the pupils. The boys were requested to seat themselves on the spars and timbers. Captain Gildrock picked out one of the pieces of rope about three feet long, from the pile, and then mounted a box where he could be seen by all hands; and several of the teachers were present.
"The next business in order is to rig the boat we have built," he began. "It is not a very complicated matter to rig a fore-and-aft schooner."
"What does that mean?" asked Sax Coburg, one of the hard fellows from Burlington, though he was interested in rigging the boat.
"I will tell you in a moment, when I have spoken of the general plan of proceeding while we are rigging the boat," replied the principal, who encouraged the pupils in asking sensible questions. "It is a comparatively simple matter to rig a schooner; but, in connection with it, I shall endeavor to have you learn something of the rig of other kinds of vessels. Those of you who live on Lake Champlain never see any sailing craft on its waters, except schooners and sloops. Now, may I ask some student to tell me what a ship is, as he understands it?"
Most of the boys thought they knew all about it, and raised their hands to indicate that they wished to speak, as they had been instructed to do.
"Bark Duxbury," said the principal, calling upon one of the old boys of the school.
"A vessel with three masts," replied the student called.
"Is that the entire definition?"
"It is all the definition I know," replied Bark.