The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht VikingSmith, Ruel Perley
General
The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht Viking
Smith, Ruel Perley
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Sea stories
“I say!” he exclaimed, throwing down the pail, wiping his brow, and
advancing aft toward the other youth, “this seems to be a sort of
afternoon tea, or reception, with cigarettes provided by the host.”
“No, thanks,” he added, shortly, as the other reached a hand into his
pocket and proffered a box of them. “You’re just too kind and generous
for anything. But I don’t smoke them. Some of my crew used to. But I tell
little Tim Reardon that that’s what keeps him from growing any. He’s at
them all the time. Guess you are, too, by the looks of you.”
Harvey glanced rather contemptuously at the lean, attenuated arm that the
other displayed, where he had rolled his cuffs back.
“Well, you don’t have to smoke them if you don’t want to,” said the
other, surlily. “But don’t preach. I’m as old as you are. My smoking is
my business.”
“Of course it is,” said Harvey. “I don’t care whether you smoke or not.
But what I object to is your doing the smoking and letting me do the
work. Your smoking is your business, and so is bailing out your own boat
your business—that is, your share of it is. Now, if you want any more
help from me, you just break up this smoking party and take that pail and
go to bailing. I’ve got enough to keep me busy while you are doing that.”
The youth glanced angrily at Harvey, but made no reply. Harvey’s stalwart
figure forbade any unpleasant retort. Sullenly, he tossed away the
half-finished cigarette, slumped down once more into the cockpit, took up
the pail that Harvey had dropped, and went to work.
“He looks like a real man now,” called out Henry Burns.
The youth, with eyes flashing, shot one glance at the smiling face of
Henry Burns, but deigned no reply.
Harvey, without further notice of his companion, proceeded to hoist the
sail a little so that he could take two reefs in it. This brought the
sail down so small as to include the torn part in that tied in. The sail
would, therefore, answer for the continuation of the trip.
“Say,” asked Harvey finally, “why didn’t you reef before, when it began
to blow up fresh and the sea got a bit nasty? You might have saved all
this.”
The youth hesitated, glanced at Harvey sheepishly, and mumbled something
that sounded like he didn’t know why he hadn’t.
“Hm!” said Harvey, under his breath. “He didn’t know enough.
“Well,” he continued, after a little time, “you’re all right to start off
again, if you think you can get along. That sail is down so small it
won’t give you any more trouble, and there is plenty of it to keep
headway on the boat; that is, if you are going on up the bay. Where are
you bound for, anyway?”
“Up to Springton,” replied the other. “Straight ahead.”
“All right,” said Harvey, “you can get there if you will only be a little
more careful. Don’t try to run straight for the town. Keep off either
way—do you see?” And Harvey designated how the other could run in safety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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