“In the woods,” replied Ben.
The skipper shoved off, and the Goldwing stood across the lake.
CHAPTER IX.
THE VOLUNTEER HELMSMAN AND HIS MOVEMENTS.
The wind was strong from the south-west; and, after passing the breakwater, the Goldwing struck into a smart little sea for a fresh-water pond. The motion was so strange, not to say exciting, to the passengers from the interior, that they kept very still for a time. The water slopped over the bow, and occasionally a bucketful pounded pretty hard on the forward deck.
Some of the boys were evidently a little startled, though they did not like to show that they were moved by this new experience. Others tried to look and act as though they had been on the waves all the days of their lives.
“It’s all right, fellows,” said Dory, when about half a barrel of water slapped on the boards forward. “We intend to keep on the top of the water.”
“Does a boat always do like that, and take the
water in?” asked Ben Ludlow, who had never seen a sheet of water bigger than a pond a mile in diameter.