“No, sir, not yet,” answered the boy.
“Run below, then, and get it, and after you’ve done come to me. We must put you to work now, lad, and make a sailor of you.”
The steward soon gave Davy as much food as he could eat; then he sprang up the companion ladder, and, running to the poop where the captain was, touched his cap, saying—
“I’m ready, sir.”
“Very good, my lad,” said the captain, sitting down on the skylight, or window on the deck, which gives light to the cabin below. “Do you see that little thing on top of the mainmast like a button?”
“Do you mean the truck?” said Davy.
“Oh, you know its name, do you? well, do you think you could climb up to it?”
“I’ll try,” cried Davy, springing towards the mast.
“Stay!” shouted the captain; “not so fast, boy. You’d tumble down and break your neck if you tried to climb to the truck the first time you ever went up the mast. But you may go to the ‘maintop.’ That’s where you see the lower mast joined to the top mast. Climb up by those rope ladders—the ‘shrouds,’ we call them.” Away went Davy, and was soon halfway up the shrouds; but he went too fast, and had to stop for breath. Then he came to the mass of woodwork and ropes at the head of the lower mast. Here he had great difficulty in getting on; but, being a fearless boy, he soon succeeded. The captain then called to him to go out to the end of the “yardarm.”
Yards are the huge cross beams fastened to the masts to which the sails are fixed. The “main-yard” is the largest. The mainsail is attached to it.