"Yes; I should just think we do," we answered. We shook him by the
hand, almost unable to speak from pleasure.

"And now let's come down and sail her," I said.

"Hold on there," said Marah Gorsuch. "Don't be too quick. You ain't
going to sail that cutter till you know how. You've got a lot to learn
first, so that must wait. It's to be Master Preacher-feller's turn
this morning. Yours'll come by-and-by. What you got to do, first go
off, is to sink that old hulk you were playing with. We'll sink her at
anchor with Preacher-feller's cannon."

He told Hugh to pick up his toy, and to come along down to the water's
edge. When he came near to the water, Marah took the old _Snail_
and tied a piece of string to her bows by way of a cable. Then he
thrust her well out into the flood, tied a piece of shale (as an
anchor) to the other end of the string, and flung it out ahead of her,
so that she rode at anchor trimly a few yards from the bank. "Now," he
said, "we'll exercise great guns. Here (he produced a powder-horn) is
the magazine; here (he produced a bag of bullets) is the
shot-locker. Here's a bag of wads. Now, my sons, down to business.
Cast loose your housings, take out tompions. Now bear a hand, my lads;
we'll give your old galleon a broadside."

We watched him as he prepared the gun for firing, eagerly lending a
hand whenever we saw what he wanted. "First of all," he said, "you
must sponge your gun. There's the sponge. Shove it down the muzzle and
give it a screw round. There! Now tap your sponge against the muzzle
to knock the dust off. There! Now the powder." He took his powder-horn