Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/152

 number of trials, the boys would keep on trying for an indefinite length of time."

While the boys were talking in this way they had pushed Joe's skiff out of the boat-house into the water, stepped the mast and unfurled the sail that was wrapped around it. Every thing being ready for the start, the little fleet set out for the opposite side of the lake, Tom and his cousins in the skiff, and Joe and his companions in their canoes. The skiff was made fast to Mr. Bigden's pier, and a quarter of an hour later three more canoes shot out of the boat-house, and the trials of speed began. They continued nearly all the afternoon, and when the rival factions bade each other good-night and paddled off toward their respective boat-houses, there was a decided feeling of uneasiness among some of them, while the others were correspondingly confident and happy.

"It doesn't seem possible that this is Bigden's first season in a canoe," said Sheldon, as soon as Tom and his cousins were out of hearing. "He is going to crowd the best of us this year, and if he keeps up his practice until the