“Why, it’s a—a—winder,” responded the boy.
“That’s just what I thought,” said Harvey, smiling in spite of his perplexity. “And what’s it for?”
“You get oysters with it,” replied the boy. “You heaves the dredge overboard, and you winds it in again.”
“Oh, I see,” said Harvey, enlightened by this lucid explanation. “It’s a sort of windlass, eh?”
Joe nodded.
“Hard work?” continued Harvey.
“Naw—easy.”
But Harvey had his misgivings. And again he comforted himself with the thought, at worst, the cruise would be over and done in a month.
“I guess I’m good for that,” he muttered; and went out on deck again.
The schooner’s course had been changed a little, and they were now sailing almost directly south, down Chesapeake bay. The schooner was no longer winged out, but had both booms off to port, getting the wind on the quarter. Fore-staysail and jib and main gaff top-sail, as well, were set, and the old craft was swinging southward at a fair clip. The wind had begun to increase.