“I scratched the mast,” said George.
“‘Scratched the mast’!” exclaimed Mr. Maxwell. “Why did you do that?”
“To bring us more wind.”
“You must be superstitious,” laughed Mr. Maxwell.
“Well,” said George, “I never used to be, but I am sort of that way now; it worked so beautifully.”
“Where did you ever hear of such a thing?”
“I read about it in some book and as things looked pretty desperate for us I thought I’d try it.”
“You mean to say that all you have to do when you want a breeze is to go up and scratch the mast?”
“Oh, I don’t think it would work every time,” laughed George. “I guess it will give you help only when you need it very badly. If you tried it all the time I suppose you’d soon wear out the charm.”
“Well, you won, anyway,” said Mr. Maxwell laughingly. “That makes you all tied with four and a half points for each team. The swimming race will have to decide it.”