"I see it!" exclaimed Jack Dumper, with enthusiasm.
"I am glad you do; but you need not take the trouble to mention it," added Captain Gildrock, with a smile. "Now, your eye has taught you the difference between a full-rigged ship and a fore-and-aft schooner. One has yards, and the other has no yards. Here is another vessel with three masts."
The picture was displayed on the easel, and a few of the boys put up their hands to indicate that they knew what to call her.
"A bark."
"Why a bark?"
"Because she is not square-rigged on her hind-mast," replied Archie Pinkler.
"Hind-mast is rather rough to a nautical ear," said the principal, "but you are right. Fore, main, and mizzen mast are the proper names; and you had better begin now to use these terms. I heard a young lady singing the other day, 'My bark is on the wave!' Did she mean this kind of a vessel?"
Some of the older students laughed, and some were puzzled. The question looked as though there was a catch under it, and they were shy about answering it.
"We read in the Good Book, about those 'who go down to the sea in ships.' Does it mean square-rigged on the fore, main, and mizzen masts? We find in the New Testament frequent allusions to the ships on the Lake of Galilee. Were these square-rigged vessels?"