"What do you beach combers want?" asked the commodore severely. "I haven't anything for you to eat."
"We want work," said Tom.
"Come aboard and I'll give you all you want," was the reply.
"Did she hold all right last night, Jim?" I asked.
"Steady as a scow," he replied.
"What are you going to do to-day?" Tom inquired.
"You and Jo can work on the side boards," he replied, "and I will make the oars."
So we went cheerily about our work, feeling that in another day we would finish the job.
"How many miles do you suppose we will make a day?" I asked.
"That depends on the current," replied Jim. "The captain said that an old trapper told him that in some places the river went over twenty miles an hour."