"Well, Rollo, I believe we'll go. The worst that will happen will be, that you may get frightened a little. We can't get hurt."
"Why can't we get hurt?" said Rollo.
"Why, even if it comes on to blow hard, it will probably be a steady gale, and I can run before it, if I can't do anything else. And there can't be much of a sea in this pond."
Rollo did not know what Jonas meant by much of a sea in the pond; but, as Jonas immediately went to work taking the horse out of the wagon, Rollo did not ask any questions. The boys unharnessed the horse, for Jonas said he would stand easier out of harness, and they might be gone more than an hour. They fastened him then to a tree, and poured the oats down before him upon the ground. Then Jonas helped Rollo into the boat, and put in the tin pail containing their luncheon, and also the umbrella; though he said he did not think it would rain before they got back. Then he shoved off the boat, and jumped in himself; and very soon they were gliding smoothly along out of the cove.
Rollo wanted to row; and so Jonas let him take one oar, while he himself sat in the stern with the paddle. Rollo soon learned the proper motion, so that his efforts assisted considerably in propelling the boat. They found, when they were out at a little distance upon the water, that the wind blew much harder than Rollo had expected.
"Jonas," said he, "the wind blows more here than it did upon the shore."
"No," said Jonas, "only we feel it more here than when we were under the lee of the land."
"What do you mean by the lee of the land?" said Rollo.
"I mean the shelter of it," replied Jonas. "Whenever a ship at sea is sheltered by anything, they say the ship is under its lee."
The boys went on, Rollo rowing, and Jonas paddling behind, until at length Rollo got tired. Jonas then told him to spread the umbrella, and hold it up for a sail. Rollo did so. The wind was blowing pretty nearly in the direction in which they were going, and, by its impulse upon the umbrella, it caused it to pull very hard. Rollo rested the middle of the handle of the umbrella upon his shoulder, holding the crook in his hand, turning it in such a position as to present the open part of the umbrella fairly to the wind. Jonas continued to paddle, and so they went on very prosperously until they had got two thirds across the pond, when Jonas ordered Rollo to take in sail.
"Why," said Rollo, "we have not got across yet."
"No," replied Jonas, "but the wind is taking us out of our course."
Rollo drew down the umbrella, and looked around. They were still at a considerable distance from the shore. Jonas extended his paddle out into the water as far as he could reach, and then drew it in towards him with several quick and strong strokes, as if he were endeavoring to pull the stern of the boat, in which he was sitting, round.
"What are you doing so for?" said Rollo.
"I am trying to bring her up into the wind," replied Jonas.
"What is that for?" asked Rollo.
"Why, we've drifted to leeward," said Jonas, "and I must bring her up; for we want to land around behind that point on the starboard bow."
Rollo did not understand Jonas's technical language very well. He particularly did not know what Jonas meant by bringing her up, for it seemed to him that the pond was perfectly level, so that there was no up or down either way. He did not know that, in sea language, against the wind was always up, and with the wind, down.
Jonas found it hard to bring the boat up into the wind. The waves had begun to be pretty large, and they beat against the bows of the boat, and some of the water dashed over upon Rollo. The wind blew quite heavily, too; and now that they had changed their direction so as to bring the wind upon their side, it embarrassed, if it did not absolutely retard their progress. Some drops of rain also began to fall.
However, by hard and persevering exertion, Jonas at length succeeded in urging the boat forward until he began to draw nigh to the point of land; and soon afterwards they came under the shelter of it, where the water was smooth, and the air comparatively still. Here Rollo put in his oar again, and they passed along close under a high shore, for some distance, until they came to the landing. Here they fastened the boat, and then began to walk along up the road.
The road lay through the woods, and among hills, so that it was sheltered; and the only indications of the wind which the boys noticed, was a distant roaring sound among the forests. They came at length to the bridge, where they found several workmen busily engaged in laying abutments of stone, but the carpenter himself was not there. The men told Jonas that he had gone about half a mile away, on a by-road, to select and cut some timber to be used in the construction of the bridge.
"How long will he be gone?" asked Jonas.
"He will be gone two or three hours," said a man with a stone hammer in his hand.
"What shall we do now?" asked Rollo, addressing Jonas, after a short pause.
"Keep on until we find him," replied Jonas. "But you may stay here and see them build the bridge, while I go after the carpenter."
Accordingly Jonas went on, leaving Rollo seated upon a bank watching the work. In about three quarters of an hour, he returned; and then he and Rollo went back to the boat. The wind had all this time continued to increase, though they were so much sheltered, that they did not notice it much.
Jonas, however, observed that some light, scudding clouds were flying across the sky, very low, being apparently far beneath the other clouds. When they reached the boat, Rollo proposed that they should stop and eat some luncheon; but Jonas said that he should eat his with a better appetite on the other side of the pond. So he hastened Rollo into the boat, and, talking his station in the stern, he began to ply his paddle with all his force, running the boat along under the shelter of the high shore.
"There isn't much wind, Jonas," said Rollo.
"We can tell better when we come round the point," replied Jonas.
Rollo observed that Jonas looked a little anxious, and he also seemed to be exerting himself so much in the long, steady strokes of his paddle, that it appeared to be rather an interruption to him to hear and answer questions. Rollo therefore did not talk. He found, however, as he drew near the point, that the waves were running by it, with great speed and force, down the pond. As the boat shot out from the shelter of the point into this place of exposure, the storm struck them suddenly, with a blast which swept the bows of the boat at once round out of her course, and dashed the spray from the waves all over Rollo's face and shoulders. It was with great difficulty that Jonas could bring the boat to the wind again.
He succeeded, however, at length, and they went on, for some time, pitching and tossing, through the waves,-the wind pressing so hard upon the boat that it was very difficult for Jonas to make any headway. The wind had changed its direction, so that it blew now almost exactly across their course; and it required great exertion for Jonas to prevent being blown away down the pond, out of his track altogether.
In the mean time, the wind rather increased than diminished; and the water dashed in so much over the bows that Rollo had to dip it up with the cover of the tin pail, and pour it out over the side of the boat into the pond again. They were going on in this way, both toiling very laboriously, when suddenly they began to hear a sound like distant thunder, somewhat louder than the ordinary roaring of the wind. They both looked towards the shore in the direction from which the sound came. On the declivity of a range of hills covered with forests they saw an unusual commotion among the trees. The tops were bowed down with great force; the branches were broken off, and Jonas thought that he could see fragments of them flying in the air; and presently, farther down, he observed several tall pines bending over, and then sinking down till they disappeared.