ain't a very great deal to do. The trawl ain't a heavy one, and as I
am accustomed to work it with Bill I can do it with you."

The Heartsease was a good-sized half-decked boat of some twenty-six
feet long and eight feet beam. She was very deep, and carried three
tons of stone ballast in her bottom. She drew about six feet of water.
She had a lot of freeboard, and carried two lug-sails and a small
mizzen.

They got in the small boat and rowed off to her.

"There was no call for you to bring that basket, Master Conway. I know
you are fond of a fish fried just when it is taken out of the water;
and I have got bread and a keg of beer, to say nothing of a mouthful
of spirits in case we get wet. Not that it looks likely we shall, for
I doubts if there will be any rain to-night I think there will be more
wind perhaps, and that it will get thicker; that's my view of the
weather."

They sailed straight out to sea. Joe had fitted his boat to be worked
with the aid of a boy only. He had a handy winch, by which he hoisted
his heavy lug-sails, and when the weather was rough hauled up his
trawls. Of these he carried two, each fourteen feet long, and fished
with them one out on each quarter. When he reached the fishing ground
six miles out, Joe lowered the mizzen lug and reefed the main, for
there was plenty of wind to keep the boat going at the pace required
for trawling under the reduced sail. Then the trawls were got
overboard, each being fastened to the end of a stout spar lashed
across the deck, and projecting some eight feet on either side, by
which arrangement the trawls were kept well apart. They were hauled