Soon Eddie and Teena arrived at the beach. Mr. Anderson was midway out on the wharf which jutted a hundred or so feet out into the smooth water of the bay. They trotted out across the rough planking to see him. The boatowner was a small, wiry man with deep wrinkles around his eyes from years of squinting against the reflection of sun on water. “Hi, there,” he greeted. “Where are your fishing poles?” “We didn’t come to fish today, Mr. Anderson,” Eddie said. “Do you have any odd jobs we can do?” “Need a boat?” the owner guessed. “Yes, sir,” Eddie said. “We’d like to row out to Cedar Point one of these days.” “Quite a row.” “Oh, Eddie’s a good rower,” Teena said. “Sometimes I even help with one of the oars.” “Well, now,” Mr. Anderson said, rubbing his bristly chin, “you’d need a boat almost a full day to row out to Cedar Point and back. At fifty cents an hour, that’s quite a bit of money.” “We don’t have any money, Mr. Anderson,” Eddie explained. “That’s why we hoped we could work it out. Remember, I’ve done it before.” “I remember,” Mr. Anderson said. “And I remember that you’re a pretty good worker, too.” He glanced along the wharf at the rowboats tied up to a row of cleats. “Tell you what. You clean out what boats are in, and you’ve earned yourselves a day’s rental on one.” Eddie counted the boats quickly. There were fourteen of them not in use. Depending upon how messy various fishermen had been, he and Teena should be able to clean them up in about three hours. “How about it, Teena?” he asked. “All right by me,” she said. “It’s a deal, Mr. Anderson,” Eddie said. “And thanks a lot.” “Just when do you figure you will want the boat?” the owner asked. “Maybe next Saturday.” “All right. You do the job, and I’ll save you one. Make it a good job, mind you.” They started with the boat near the far end of the wharf, and worked shoreward. They wiped off the seats with a damp rag and coiled the anchor ropes neatly near the bow. The biggest job, though, was cleaning up the junk which had gathered in the bottom of each boat during the week. There were candy wrappers, smelly chunks of old bait, snarled bits of leader, occasional fishhooks, even dried-out sandwich crusts and other odds and ends which had collected in each boat. While they were working, two more boats returned. Eddie checked their numbers when they came in. Then, after he and Teena had finished cleaning up the fourteen, they went back and did the two new arrivals. “Well, I’d say you’ve earned a boat for next Saturday,” Mr. Anderson said, glancing approvingly at their work. “And thanks for cleaning up those extra two that came in. They weren’t actually in the bargain, you know.” “We were glad to do them,” Eddie said, feeling a bit proud that they had done more than the bargain called for. “I guess we’d better be going now.”