up the ladder. In our play we can be moving up, and reconciliation is a
round in the ladder."




CHAPTER XIII.

A KNIGHT GOES TO SEA.


"And do you want to come to my launching?"

"You going to be launched?" asked Charlie.

"Not exactly," said Skipper Wentworth, Wort's father, "but my schooner is,
and if you come to Raynes's ship-yard next Saturday, you will see her. You
can tell any of the other boys to come if they like. Wort will be there."

Charlie went down to the yard the day before the launching. The schooner
seemed to be an ant-heap where all the ants were stirring, and all were on
the outside, so many men were at work. The club boys were quite numerously
represented through their friends. Sid's father was flourishing a
paint-brush high up on a staging. Pip's father and also Juggie's cousin
were swinging their hammers about the cook's quarters Pip's grandfather, a
blacksmith, was inspecting some of the iron-work of the vessel. A tall
cousin of the governor was driving oxen. The clanking chains of the oxen
hauling timber for the building of another vessel, the pounding of
hammers, the shouts of the bosses ordering the workmen, made a lively
compound of sound. The next Saturday, every thing was ready for the