"Did any of you ever tow a log in the water?" asked the principal, pausing for a reply.
"I have," answered Leo Pownall, whose father owned a saw-mill. "I have towed lots of them on the mill-pond."
"To which end of the log did you make fast?" inquired the captain.
"To either end; just as it came handy," replied the student.
"Then you sometimes did more work than was necessary with your oars. A log tows easier when you make fast to the big end," continued the principal, waiting for the pupils to digest the idea.
"I don't see what difference it can make," added Leo. "If anything, I should say that the small end would open a passage through the water more readily than the big end."
"I suppose none of you ever saw a whale, but most of you have caught horn-pouts, or bullheads."
"I have seen a whale on exhibition in New York," interposed Luke Bennington.
"What was the shape of his head?"