them away as you hand them across."

In an hour the sacks of flour were transferred from the barge to the
hold of the Susan, and the sides of bacon then placed upon them.

"It's a pity we haven't all the rest of the things on board," the
skipper said, "and then we could have started by this evening's tide
instead of waiting till the morning. The wind is fair, and I hate
throwing away a fair wind. There is no saying where it may blow
tomorrow, but I shouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't round
to the south, and that will be foul for us till we get pretty nigh
up into the mouth of the river. However, I gave them till tonight
for getting all their things on board and must therefore wait."

To the boys the Susan appeared quite a large craft, for there
was not water up at Hedingham for vessels of her size; and though
they had seen ships at Harwich, they had never before put foot on
anything larger than Master Lirriper's barge. The Susan was about
forty feet long by twelve feet beam, and drew, as her skipper
informed them, near five feet of water. She was entirely decked.
The cabin in the bows occupied some fourteen feet in length. The
rest was devoted to cargo. They descended into the cabin, which
seemed to them very dark, there being no light save what came down
through the small hatchway. Still it looked snug and comfortable.
There was a fireplace on one side of the ladder by which they had
descended, and on this side there were two bunks, one above the
other. On the other side there were lockers running along the entire
length of the cabin. Two could sleep on these and two on the bunks
above them.