"Why, by not using the boat at all!" replied Peterkin.

"Hold your impudent tongue, Peterkin," said Jack, as he shouldered
the oars, "come along with me and I'll give you work to do. In the
first place, you will go and collect cocoa-nut fibre, and set to
work to make sewing twine with it - "

"Please, captain," interrupted Peterkin, "I've got lots of it made
already, - more than enough, as a little friend of mine used to be
in the habit of saying every day after dinner."

"Very well," continued Jack; "then you'll help Ralph to collect
cocoa-nut cloth, and cut it into shape, after which we'll make a
sail of it. I'll see to getting the mast and the gearing; so let's
to work."

And to work we went right busily, so that in three days from that
time we had set up a mast and sail, with the necessary rigging, in
our little boat. The sail was not, indeed, very handsome to look
at, as it was formed of a number of oblong patches of cloth; but we
had sewed it well by means of our sail-needle, so that it was
strong, which was the chief point. Jack had also overcome the
difficulty about the keel, by pinning to it a FALSE keel. This was
a piece of tough wood, of the same length and width as the real
keel, and about five inches deep. He made it of this depth because
the boat would be thereby rendered not only much more safe, but
more able to beat against the wind; which, in a sea where the
trade-winds blow so long and so steadily in one direction, was a
matter of great importance. This piece of wood was pegged very