“What in the world is a jib?” queried1 Frances with a puzzled expression. “I thought it was some part of your face because my small brother used to say ‘If you don’t shut up, Sis, I’ll bust2 you one in the jib.’”
“In this case, it is the sail that is fastened on the bowsprit. There are a lot of things to learn on a boat, but don’t give up because, before the cruise is over, you girls are going to be able to sail the ship by yourselves and we men can take it easy; isn’t that right, Jack3?” and Mr. Wing went up on deck to uncover the wheel.
Mabel advised her friends to stay below until the “Boojum” was well under way. There was always a great deal of excitement on deck whenever they left a harbor and it might be just as well for all concerned if they kept out of the way until they got the hang of things nautical4.
Ellen borrowed “The Hunting of the Snark” from Charlie and announced that she was going to curl up on the transom in the saloon and become familiar enough with it by supper to beat the others at their own game.
“She starts, she moves, she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel,”
sang Frances, “and I’ve just simply got to go up on deck and see what it looks like when we are going. Is it all right for me to go up now, Mabel?”
Just then Mr. Wing and Jack settled the question by sticking their heads down the hatch and demanding the presence of the girls on deck. Charlie was at the wheel and Breck was mopping up the slime that the anchor chain had made on deck.
“Mabel, will you take the wheel?” asked Charlie in coaxing5 tones. “I want to catch a smoke and it’s against the rules for the man at the wheel to smoke.”
“Give that buoy6 a good berth7, daughter,” advised her father.
Mabel smiled her assent8, for she knew the little harbor as well as her father, and though she had piloted the “Boojum” out some dozen times she always got exactly the same warning about the bobbing red buoy.
The “Boojum” slipped gracefully9 through the water, with all her sails pulling. Smaller sail boats crossed her bow and their occupants gaily10 waved handkerchiefs and hands to the little group on the “Boojum.”
Jack’s lazy length was stretched on a striped deck mattress11, while Ellen, seated near him on a cushion, watched him with thoughtful and admiring eyes, for in Frances’ breezy western slang, Jack was “easy to look at.” Charlie talked to his fiancée and Mr. Wing pored over a chart, mapping out a course from New London to Newport. Jane and Frances, the two irrepressibles, unhampered by being in love, had elected to sit as far out on the bow as they could without actually straddling the bowsprit. They liked the sting of the salt spray on their faces. Frances pointed12 to where Mr. Wing was reading the chart and then she and Jane began in chorus:
“He had brought a large map representing the sea
Without the least vestige13 of land;
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.”
Mr. Wing laughed and, not to be outdone, went on with the ridiculous tale:
“‘What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian14 Lines?’
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply:
‘They are merely conventional signs.’”
But Mabel interrupted him:
“‘Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes15!
But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank.’
So the crew would protest—‘that he’s bought us the best—
A perfect and absolute blank!’
“And now Daddy you come on and take your wheel because here comes a tug16 and it has three tows. It always scares me to death to meet one of those old tugs,” Mabel explained to Jane and Frances as she flopped17 down beside them. “They are absolutely unscrupulous—just like road hogs—always running into yachts on the sound. Whew! it’s good to see you kids again. Wouldn’t it be terrible if there would ever be a summer when some of us wouldn’t see each other?” she paused solemnly.
“You talk exactly as though you weren’t going to marry your fat Charlie in November,” teased Frances. “You will live in Lexington near Jane and that won’t be so bad, but how about me away out on the ranch18? And it looks as if, in the course of time, that Ellen will come and live reasonably near Jane, too.”
“Well, my good spinster friend, Frances,” laughed Jane, “I reckon that as long as we are in the same boat we will have to start a tea-room or a poultry19 farm or some other stupid thing that unloved old maids do. Oh! the tragedy of being an old maid at twenty, and the pain made more terrible by the fact that we see the happiness of our friends so plainly.”
“And it will be ever thus, Plain Jane, for where could we ever find a man worthy20 of our splendid selves?” asked Frances. “They all fall for me, of course, but I can’t give them any encouragement, knowing my own value as I do.”
“If we get to Lloyd’s Harbor in time for a swim to-night, I am going to duck you both,” threatened Mabel, who was a veritable fish. “In the meantime, I’ll just get Charlie to make a cat o’ nine tails for me. Poor child, he will need the protection as much I do.”
“Who needs protection?” asked Charlie, who had come forward to sheet in the staysail.
“You,” Frances promptly21 replied, getting a sharp dig from Mabel’s elbow in reward for her truthfulness22. “Wow! Mabel, I thought you were too well cushioned to hurt.”
“Push their noses in, Mabel,” advised Charlie, “and when you have finished, bring Jack and Ellen down to earth and tell them to go below and put on their bathing suits. Lloyd’s Harbor is just around that point and we will make it in about fifteen minutes. Soon as we drop anchor, we all want to go over the side. This harbor is a dandy place to swim.”
The girls dashed below, scrambled23 into their suits and returned to their place forward to find that the “Boojum” was nosing its way into one of the loveliest little harbors on the eastern coast. One side of the mouth of the harbor was marked by a high bit of wooded land that sloped gently down to the curved sandy beach.
“The wonderful smell that is in the air,” Ellen whispered to Jack. “I imagine lotus flowers are like that. The land where it is always afternoon. Why, I could stay here forever and ever.”
“And I would have to be with you, for lotus-eaters forget all the past and dream and dream away their lives, and I don’t want to be forgotten for one little minute.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that, Jack. I couldn’t forget you for an instant, not if I ate lotus for years and years.”
“Hey, you Jack, stop talking sweet nothings. Mr. Wing has called you three times to see that the anchor is ready to heave over,” and Jane gave her brother a shove in the direction of the anchor.
“For heaven’s sake, Jane, I wish you would look at Breck! What on earth can he be doing?” Frances pointed to where Breck was leaning over the hand-rail earnestly spitting, with Mr. Wing eagerly watching.
“Mr. Wing,” called Jane, “is there anything I can do for Breck? Lemon is awfully24 good for seasickness25, Aunt Min says.”
Mr. Wing’s fat face turned purple with the effort not to laugh and Breck finally chuckled26.
“Ridiculous, Jane,” said the “Boojum’s” owner, “that is the sailor’s best method of telling whether a ship has lost her way or not. You see, you don’t want to drop anchor while the ship is still moving, and if you spit over the side you can tell easily how fast you are going.”
“Well, no wonder I didn’t understand! Who would?” demanded Jane.
“It was a perfectly27 natural mistake, Miss Pellew,” said Breck.
“Jane, as a Camp Fire Girl, you should thoroughly28 approve of the infinite resources of nature,” teased Frances.
“I do think it is an awfully good idea, but, didn’t it look funny?” agreed Jane.
“Breck, you better let out a little more chain,” ordered Mr. Wing. “And Jane, I’m going to show you and Frances how to let down the dinghy from the davits, so you girls can be independent of Charlie and Jack. There is not much chance of getting those two to do anything for any girls except Mabel and Ellen and there might be a time when you would want to take the boat when Breck and I were ashore29.”
Frances and Jane lowered away at the ropes, taking care, in accordance with Mr. Wing’s advice, to let the stern hit the water before the bow so as not to ship any water.
“Watch me, Plain Jane, and profit by my courage,” cried Frances, grabbing a rope and sliding down it into the water.
“Rather get my head in first,” said Jane; and her body shot out from the hand-rail, describing an arc before she sank into the water, leaving barely a ripple30.
“Great stuff, you kids, but I am too fat and have to wend my middle-aged31 way down the sea-ladder,” and Mr. Wing did it.
Soon all of them were in, Frances, Mabel and Jane, romping32 around like young seals, Mabel pursuing the other two, round and round the “Boojum” in her efforts to duck the two teasers.
“It’s terrible just to be able to do this silly little side stroke,” wailed33 Ellen to Mr. Wing and Jack, “when all the other girls swim the trudgeon, double overarm and Australian crawl just like professionals.”
“Come on, Jack, let’s teach her,” said the father of one of the envied ducks.
The two men started teaching Ellen the difficult feat34 of breathing with the head on one side when the arm comes up for the stroke and exhaling35 with the head under water. Ellen strangled and spluttered about for a while, as beginners do, time after time, reversing the order and breathing in under water and choking when she came up for the breath she was unable to take. After patience on the part of the pupil and teachers, she began making noble attempts to combine the breathing with the actual stroke.
Jane and Frances had clambered up over the stern of the dinghy which had been made fast at the end of the lowered boat-boom and were engaged in a spirited discussion of the value of salt water swimming and the value of fresh water swimming.
“Frances, look! Did you ever see such a beauty in your life?” Jane gasped36 as she watched a tall, broad-shouldered, slender-hipped figure in a maroon37 swimming suit poise38 itself on the extreme end of the bowsprit before making the most perfect jack-knife dive either of the girls had ever seen.
“Whew! the brown of his legs and shoulders against that dark red of his suit was just too beautiful to be true,” asserted Frances. “And Jane, do you know who it was? Well, it was Breck and he has no right to be so gorgeous looking.”
“He uses perfectly good English, whenever he speaks, which is seldom. What in the world do you suppose he is?” Jane asked.
“I think he is awfully interesting, and I wish I knew something about him. He makes such a point of being just one of the men employed by Mr. Wing that I can’t help feeling that he isn’t an ordinary sailor, Jane.”
“Well, probably if we hadn’t seen him make that peach of a jack-knife and he hadn’t had that maroon bathing suit but some old faded grey one, we would probably never have given him a second thought, so let’s don’t anyway. Come on and get dressed, I am hungry as a shark.” Jane lightly dismissed the subject that interested her a great deal more than she cared to admit.
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收听单词发音
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1
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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2
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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3
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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4
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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5
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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6
buoy
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| n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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7
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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8
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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9
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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10
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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12
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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13
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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14
meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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15
capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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16
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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17
flopped
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| v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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18
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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19
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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20
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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21
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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22
truthfulness
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| n. 符合实际 | |
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23
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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24
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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25
seasickness
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| n.晕船 | |
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26
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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28
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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29
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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30
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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31
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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32
romping
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| adj.嬉戏喧闹的，乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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33
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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35
exhaling
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的现在分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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36
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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37
maroon
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| v.困住，使（人）处于孤独无助之境；n.逃亡黑奴；孤立的人；酱紫色，褐红色；adj.酱紫色的，褐红色的 | |
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38
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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