Part 6 (2/2)
”Steady, there,” said Uncle Ben; ”keep the sails full.”
Frank found it was not so easy a matter to steer a sailboat as he had supposed; for one moment he stopped the boat by ”throwing her up into the wind,” and the next ran her almost on sh.o.r.e by ”keeping away.”
”Keep her away!” cried Uncle Ben. ”That will do; steady as she is. No, no; you are six p'ints off the course now. Luff a little! Hard a port!”
”I don't know what you mean, Uncle Ben; I think you had better steer yourself,” said Frank, resigning the helm.
”I think I had.”
Under the old sailor's skilful management, the boat soon reached Centre Isle, where they decided to land.
”Now, boys, if you want to celebrate a little, here's half a dozen bunches of crackers,” said Uncle Ben, as he took a little package from the locker in the stern of the boat.
”Bravo, Uncle Ben! We will have a nice time.”
”Now, if you are of a mind to stay here and have a good time, while I sail over to the other sh.o.r.e to see a sick man, I will give you a good sail when I return.”
”Hurrah! we will, Uncle Ben. Have you got any matches?”
”There are matches and a slowmatch in the bundle,” replied Uncle Ben, as he pushed off. ”Now blaze away, and don't burn your fingers.”
”Now for it!” exclaimed Charles, as he lighted the slowmatch. ”Here goes the first shot. Hurrah!”
The boys were in high glee. The crackers snapped admirably, and the little forest of Centre Isle reverberated with the reports of their mimic guns. Various expedients were devised to vary the entertainment.
Crackers were fired in the water, in the stumps, thrown in the air, or half buried in the wet sand of the beach.
”By gracious! the Bunkers are coming!” exclaimed Tony Weston, as he discerned the raft, navigated by half a dozen boys, approaching the island.
”Let them come,” said Charles.
”I had rather they would not come,” added Frank.
”What harm will they do?”
”They are quarrelsome and disagreeable.”
”Well, they won't be here this half-hour yet; that is one consolation; and we can have a good time till they do get here,” returned Charles, as he lighted a whole bunch of the crackers.
”Go it!” cried Tony. ”Hurrah! Fourth of July comes but once a year.”
”Don't fire them all at once, Charley,” interposed Frank.
”That is all the fun of it.”
”But the fun won't last long at that rate.”
”We must fire them all before the Bunkers get here, or they will take them away from us.”
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