"The proposed excursion, as you understood it, was certainly an innocent one. For what time had Spickles chartered this vessel?" asked the principal.
"For two months; and paid down for one month."
"As you are a part of the party, it seems to me that the schooner belongs to you for the time it was engaged; and there is nothing to prevent you from making the excursion around the lake, and remaining upon it as long as you please," suggested the captain.
"There is only one thing in the way of doing that: we have no skipper, and we are not competent to handle the vessel. Angy was the only one of us who knew how to handle a schooner, though Mack and Chuck knew something about the business," replied Ripples.
"If you will remain in the vicinity of Beaver River, I will furnish a person to instruct you in managing the vessel. You are welcome to remain as long as you please at the school," added the principal.
Ripples and his companions thanked the captain for this privilege, and manifested a good deal of interest in the affairs of Beech Hill. By this time the students had gathered in the schoolroom to attend to the lecture which had been suspended, and the guests of the institution were invited to be present.
"I have fully explained to you all that it is possible to have you comprehend in regard to a ship, or any square-rigged vessel, without actual practice," the principal began, as he took his place on the platform. "As I said this morning, I prefer to tell you what you want to know."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, at least a dozen hands were raised; and it was plain that the students were primed with questions in regard to nautical matters, and wanted their information from competent authority.
"What is sailing on a bowline? I found it in a book the other day," asked Bark Duxbury, when the principal nodded to him.
"You pronounce it as though it were two words. Say bo-lin," replied the principal, as he went to the blackboard, and drew one side of a topsail, showing the leech.