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Updated: May 27, 2025
Me head's gettin' that swelled I couldn't draw a watch cap down over me ears." The exhaust of the auxiliary engine of the catboat was spitting when Frenchy hailed their mates. Whistler was loosening the points of the big sail while Torry worked at the engine. "How'll we get over there?" demanded Ikey. "There's no boat here."
"It 'll be kind of ca'm for a spell," replied Captain Eri, "but I wouldn't wonder if we had some wind 'fore night. Here you, fo'mast hand," he added, turning to Josiah, "stand by to git the canvas on her." The mainsail was soon hoisted, and the catboat moved slowly out of the bay. "Gee! it's dark," exclaimed Josiah, "what are you goin' way off here for? Why don't you go straight out?"
"That would be better than anything in the world! You sail a boat?" she asked inquiringly. "Sail a boat!" roared the captain. "I have a great mind to kick over this table! My dear, I can sail a boat, keel uppermost, if the water's deep enough! Sail a boat!" he repeated. "I sailed a catboat from Boston to Egg Harbor before your mother was born. By the way, you seem very anxious about boat sailing.
She descried a catboat leaning far over and skimming up stream toward Atlamalco, and a canoe, in which were two natives, was observed, as one of the occupants swung his paddle like an American Indian and drove the tiny craft toward the northern shore. But as her vision roved up and down the river, she failed to see that for which she longed above everything else.
But the next short tack seemed to bring the boat no nearer than before, and the long leg carried it so far away that it was no more use shouting to the orange sail than to a stupid old herring-gull. "Could you wave for a bit, Chris?" Jerry said. "My arms are off." So I took the shirt and waved it by its sleeves, and the catboat began another short tack.
The craft was schooner-rigged, carried three lifeboats and a collapsible raft, and was navigated by a captain, first and second mates, and a crew of six able-bodied sailors and one gaunt youth whose sole knowledge of navigation had been gained on an Atlantic City catboat. Her destination was vague Panama perhaps, possibly a South American port, depending on the weather and the whim of the owner.
He brought pen, ink, and paper, and proceeded to indite a formidable document to the effect that "Josiah Bartlett, able seaman," was to ship aboard the catboat Mary Ellen for a term of two months. Wages, five dollars a month. "You see," he said, "I've put you down as able seaman 'cause that's what you'll be when I git through with you. Now sign."
Of course, the weather must be good or it's no joy job taking females to Setuckit in a catboat. The night before the big day, Peter came out to the Weather Bureau and Jonadab and me dropped in likewise. Beriah was there all alone; Eben was out walking with Emma. "Well, Jeremiah," says Brown, chipper as a mack'rel gull on a spar-buoy, "what's the outlook for to-morrer?
He pointed. "I'll fetch up with her in no time." But Amber could see nothing in the least resembling the catboat, and said so with decision. "She's there, all right," insisted Quain. "'Tain't my fault if you're blind. Here, hold this, will you, while I find me a pole of some sort."
"It's rather a pity," the professor said, when, after lunch, they had started for the fishing-grounds in a small catboat, "that you haven't had a chance to go up to The Dalles to see the salmon leaping up the falls and the rapids. I think it's one of the most wonderful sights in the world."
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