a boat, being a small, flat-bottomed skiff, which leaked so badly
that she could not be kept afloat unless one boy kept constantly at work
bailing. However, Harry learned to row in her, and he now found this
knowledge very useful. He was anxious to start on the cruise
immediately, but his uncle insisted that the crew must first be trained.
"I must teach you to sail, and you must teach your crew to row," said
Uncle John. "The Department will never consent to let a boat go on a
cruise unless her commander and her crew know their duty."

"What's the Department?" asked Harry.

"The Navy Department in the United States service has the whole charge
of the navy, and sends vessels where it pleases. Now I consider that I
represent a Department of Moral Piracy, and I therefore superintend the
fitting out of the _Whitewing_. You can't expect moral piracy to
flourish unless you respect the Department, and obey its orders."

"All right, uncle," replied Harry. "Of course the Department furnishes
stores and everything else for a cruise, doesn't it?"

"I suppose it must," said his uncle, laughing. "I didn't think of that
when I proposed to become a Department."

The boys met every day at Harlem, and practiced rowing. Uncle John
taught them how to sail the boat, by letting them take her out under
sail when there was very little breeze, while he kept close alongside in
another boat very much like the _Whitewing_. Harry sat in the
stern-sheets, holding the yoke lines. Tom Schuyler, who was fourteen
years old, and a boy of more than usual prudence, sat on the nearest
thwart, and held the sheet, which passed under a cleat without being
made fast to it, in his hand. Next came Jim Sharpe, whose business it
was to unship the mast when the captain should order sail to be taken
in; and on the forward thwart sat Joe Sharpe, who was not quite twelve,
and who kept the boat-hook within reach, so as to use it on coming to
shore. The boys kept the same positions when rowing, Tom Schuyler being
the stroke. Uncle John told them that if every one always had the same
seat, and had a particular duty assigned to him, it would prevent
confusion and dispute, and greatly increase the safety of the vessel and
crew.

It was not long before Harry could sail the boat nicely, and the others,
by attending closely to Uncle John's lessons, learned almost as much as
their young captain. So far as boat-sailing can be taught in fair
weather, Harry was carefully and