"There is a cow," added Ben.
"Better take a train of cars on the railroad: it moves faster, and you would fetch up somewhere, though it might be on the bottom of the lake. Not an object that moves, or can move, my lad. Take that highest tree," replied Thad, as he pointed to it.
Ben took his place at the wheel, and fixed his gaze on the tree, which Ash had used for his mark. In a moment the boat was off the course; and the new hand, anxious to set her right, pulled the wheel about half way round. The skipper said nothing, for he wanted his pupils to learn by experience. The sail began to shake, as the Goldwing came up into the wind. Ben immediately put the wheel the other way: the sloop came back to her course, and then began to fall off.
"Steer small, Ben: that's what's the matter. You have her almost before the wind; and it won't do to let her go any farther round, for the sail will bang over to the other side," interposed the skipper, giving the wheel a turn. "You will send us all to the bottom at that rate."
"I told you I didn't believe I could do it," replied Ben, not a little mortified at his ill success.
"But I know you can do it: only you have made the same mistake as all new hands," added Thad, as he brought the boat to her course. "Now you are all right again. It won't do to fool with a boat when the wind is as fresh as it is now. Just move the wheel only an inch or two at a time, till you learn how much it requires."
"I see, that, if you turn the wheel only an inch, it has an effect on the head of the boat," said Ben, after he had got the hang of the wheel. "I thought you had to move it at least a foot to produce any effect at all."
"If the wind were light, it would be different," added Thad. "The whole thing is balanced, and the movement of the rudder keeps the boat in a sort of equilibrium."
"That's a big word," said Archie.
"But you all know what it means, though you may not see how it applies to a boat under sail. Suppose I haul in the main-sheet, so that the wind will blow square against it," continued the skipper, suiting the action to the word, till the boat heeled over enough to startle the timid ones.