“Will your new plan work on my canoe?” asked Tom.
“No; nothing will keep that ‘Rice Lake’ bathtub of yours dry in a rain, unless you deck her over.”
“That’s what I’m going to do when we get to Magog. I’ll buy some canvas and deck over the ends of my canoe. Sleeping in her in the rain as she is now is like sleeping in a cistern with the water running into it.”
“Now that we’ve had a chance to try our sails, which rig do you like best, Sailing-master?” asked Harry.
“That lateen-rig that Joe has,” replied Charley. “He can set his sail and take it in while the rest of us are trying to find our halyards. Did you see how the whole concern—spars and sail—floated free of the canoe of their own accord the moment she capsized?”
“That’s so; but then my big balance-lug holds more wind than Joe’s sail.”
“It held too much yesterday. It’s a first-rate rig for racing, but it isn’t anything like as handy as the lateen for cruising; neither is my standing-lug. I tried to get it down in a hurry yesterday, and the halyards jammed, and I couldn’t get it down for two or three minutes.”
“I can get my leg-of mutton in easy enough,” remarked Tom, “but I can’t get the mast out of the step unless the water’s perfectly smooth, and I don’t believe I could then without going ashore.”
“Now, Commodore,” said Charley, “if you’ll give the order to start, I’ll give the order to carry all sail. The breeze is light and the water is smooth, and we ought to run down to the end of the lake by noon.”
The little fleet made a beautiful appearance as it cruised down the lake under full sail. The breeze was westerly, which fact enabled the canoes to carry their after-sails—technically known as “dandies”—to much advantage. When running directly before the wind the “dandy” is sometimes a dangerous sail, as it is apt to make the canoe broach-to; but with a wind from any other direction than dead aft it is a very useful sail.