Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/84

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70
BEACHED KEELS

that's no kind o' use on a schooner. She's too big a bo't."

"Too big a bo't fer you, 'cause you'd knock the bottom out of 'er," retorted Kellum placidly. "Some men is proper fools about bo'ts, if they hev been out from Gloucester."

"Haw, haw!" the loud young man shouted in ecstasy.

"That shows how much ye know," the old one went on, suddenly excited. He took out his pipe, and argued with bent fingers pegging at his opponent in the dusk. "The longer yer bo't, the more wood ye got at each end o' the hole to keep 'er solid. The Regina,—if I had the money to buy 'er back, I'd not stay in this stinkin ' cove,—why, I see 'er comin ' out from Freeport with 'er centreboard down, an', by Godfrey, she'd go like a horse!"

"Yeah, she'd go like a horse," assented the Yankee. "That's right."

Another listener wagged his head. "She would, too. She'd go like a horse."

The loud young man laughed again. "I