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Read Ebook: The Seashore Book: Bob and Betty's Summer with Captain Hawes by Smith E Boyd Elmer Boyd
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Ebook has 109 lines and 8746 words, and 3 pages
Illustrator: E. Boyd Smith
THE EARLY LIFE OF MR. MAN. Illustrated in color.
THE STORY OF NOAH'S ARK. Illustrated in color.
THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. Illustrated in color.
THE RAILROAD BOOK. Illustrated in color.
THE SEASHORE BOOK. Illustrated in color.
THE FARM BOOK. Illustrated in color.
Books specially illustrated in color by E. Boyd Smith
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
THE SEASHORE BOOK
BOB AND BETTY'S SUMMER WITH CAPTAIN HAWES
STORY AND PICTURES BY E. BOYD SMITH
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS
THE SEASHORE BOOK
THE FIRST ROW
Now I will tell you how Bob and Betty spent the summer at the seashore with Captain Ben Hawes. Captain Hawes was an old sailor. After forty years' service on the high seas he had settled down ashore at Quohaug.
Bluff and hearty, and with no end of sea yarns and stories of strange adventures, and of foreign ports and peoples, he was more interesting to the children than the most fascinating fairy book.
His home was a little museum of odds and ends brought from different far-away lands, with everything arranged in shipshape order. The big green parrot, who could call "Ship ahoy!" "All aboard!" delighted the boy and girl. And the seashells, which gave the murmuring echo of the ocean when you put them to your ear. And the curiosities of strange sorts and shapes, from outlandish countries.
As their first day was fine and the bay smooth, Captain Hawes took the children out for a row in his "sharpey." How delightful it was, skimming so easily over the shining water. The shore, the docks, and the vessels at the wharves were all so interesting from this view.
He told them all about the different craft they passed, the fishermen, the coal barges, the tramp steamers, how they sailed and where they went to, and now, finding them such good listeners, for the Captain liked to tell about ships and the sea, he launched forth into a general history of things connected with sea life, from the first men, long, long ago, who began poling about on rafts, to the coracle, and the dugout. The dugouts were canoes hollowed out of tree trunks.
"Down in the South Seas the savages still make them; I've seen them many a time," he explained; "and of course you've heard of our Indians' birchbark canoes."
"Now, I want you to know all about boats and ships," he added; "I'll take you to the yards to-morrow, if it's fine, and show you how they make them, so that when you go back home, where they don't know much about such things, you can just tell them."
THE SHIPYARD
The next day Captain Ben, true to his promise, took the children around to Stewart's Boat Shop where a fishing-boat was being built, and showed them just how the frame was made, the keel, the ribs, the stem, and sternpost, and how the planking was laid on. How everything was made as stiff and strong as possible so that the boat could stand the strain of being tossed about by heavy seas.
Bob followed it all with enthusiasm, for he was fond of carpentering and working with tools. He made up his mind that he would build a boat some day.
And now the Captain, having made everything clear with this small example which they could readily understand, proposed a visit to the shipyard, where a real life-sized ship was being built.
Here they found a busy gang of men hard at work, some with "broad axes" cutting down the planks to a line, "scoring" and "beating off"; others with "adzes" "dubbing," and even whipsawyers ripping logs.
On stagings about the great ship, which towered up as high as a house, more men were at work planking. The planks, hot from the steam boxes, carried up the "brow" staging on men's shoulders, to be clamped into place and bolted fast.
And how big it all was! This made the children open their eyes in wonder. They had already seen such vessels in the water, but had never appreciated how huge the hulls were, almost like a block of houses, or so it seemed to them.
Captain Hawes then showed them how this great ship was built on the same principle as the small boat they had just seen. And now if the children didn't really understand everything it wasn't the Captain's fault; the subject was rather a big one for beginners. But it was a great sight, and it wasn't everybody who had seen a ship being built, they knew that.
On the way home they rowed past sloops with a strange contrivance out on the end of the bowsprit; this Captain Hawes said was called a "pulpit." These boats went sword-fishing, and in the pulpit a man was stationed with lance in hand, while aloft in the rigging a "lookout" sighted the fish. When the boat was near enough, the man with the lance stood ready, and speared the fish as it passed. He promised to show them these big fish the next time a catch was brought in.
DIGGING CLAMS
Though there were so many interesting things to see and learn by the seashore, it was also an ideal place for play, and just now it seemed to our boy and girl as though nothing else could compare with it.
Clam-digging was such sport. Captain Hawes took them down at low tide to the soft mud and showed them how to dig the clams. And then the fun of roasting them in the driftwood fire, and the picnic clam-bakes, with the delicious chowder!
It was here the children met a future playmate, Patsey Quinn. Captain Hawes jokingly called him a little water-rat, for Patsey had been brought up along the shore and knew all about things. He proved to be a most valuable companion to Bob and Betty, and the Captain could trust him to look after them, for of course he knew just what was safe and what wasn't.
He took them on many expeditions along the beach, knew just where the best clams and mussels were to be found, and where the crabs lived, and how to catch them. Wading among the seaweed-covered rocks they had lively times, occasionally getting their toes or fingers nipped, for crabs object to being caught.
Patsey taught his new friends how to fish, though they never got to be as good fishermen as he was. They seemed to catch more sculpins than anything else, and though sculpins were wonderful looking creatures they were not, Patsey explained, very good eating; flounders and eels were better. But Betty was afraid of eels. They squirmed so.
The seaweeds and shells interested the children, and the many-colored pebbles, so nice and round, from being rolled by the sea, Patsey knowingly explained.
He showed them how to throw flat stones along the surface of the water, until they, too, could make them skip a number of times before sinking.
There was no end to the variety of amusements; every day seemed to bring forth new ones, and the sunburned, healthy children enjoyed it all to the full.
THE SAIL LOFT
Nights, especially dark nights, the children watched with unfailing interest the great flash-light from the lighthouse out on the point. Captain Hawes had explained the uses of lighthouses, how they showed the way to ships at night, like signs on street corners or crossroads, and also warned them to keep away from the rocks. One day he rowed them out, and the light-keeper took them up in the tower and proudly showed them the powerful lamp with its complicated reflectors, and explained it all. Betty admired the bright, shining appearance of things, and was surprised to learn that the man himself looked after all this: she had thought that only a housekeeper could keep up such a polish.
Another time Captain Hawes took the children to Barry's sail loft, where the sails for the new ship were being made. He had already told them something about sailmaking, but knew they would understand better by seeing the real things. The sail loft, like everything connected with ships, proved interesting,--the broad clean floor, the men on their low benches sewing the seams of the heavy canvas, forcing the needles through with the stout leather "palms," instead of thimbles. And all their neat tools, the "heavers," "stickers," "fids," "grummet stamps," and such odd-named things.
On the wall in one corner of the loft was a varied collection of bright "clew irons" and "rings," "thimbles" and "cringles," which aroused the children's curiosity. These, it was explained, were to be sewed into the corners of the sails to hold the ropes for rigging. Here and there compact, heavy rolls of canvas, sails completed, were lying by, ready to be taken away and rigged to the tall masts and broad yards of the ship; sails which later would look so light and graceful when carrying the ship along.
The summer days were passing quickly to the children, and Captain Hawes insisted that they must hurry and learn to swim, and with Patsey's help they were at it daily. After the first cautious wadings and splashing they enjoyed it immensely, and before the summer was really over they had learned to keep their heads above water: not to swim far, that would come with time and greater strength, but they had made a beginning, and felt justly proud of the accomplishment.
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