n on board the boat. The
boatmen, after taking it in, rowed forward to another place, and there
fastened it again. As soon as they had fastened it, they called out to
the men on board the ship, "HAUL AWAY!" and then a moment afterwards the
middle of the rope could be seen gradually rising out of the water until
it was drawn straight and tense as before; and then the ship began to
move on, though very slowly, towards the place where they wished to
bring her.

"That's a good way to get her to her place," said Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George. "I don't know how seamen could manage their
vessels in docks and harbors without this process of warping."

"I suppose they can't warp any where but in docks and harbors," said
Rollo.

"Why not?" asked Mr. George.

"Because," replied Rollo, "unless there was a quay or a shore close by,
they would not have any thing to fasten the line to."

Mr. George then explained to Rollo that they could warp a vessel among
the ice in the arctic regions by fastening the line to posts set for the
purpose in the great floes.

"O, of course they can do that," said Rollo. "The ice, in that case, is
just the same as a shore; I mean where there is not any shore at all."

"Well," said Mr. George, "they can warp where there is not any shore at
all, provided that the water is not too deep. In that case they take a
small anchor in a boat, and row forward to the length of the line, and
then drop the anchor, and so warp to that."

"Yes," said Rollo; "I see. I did not think of that plan. But when they
have brought the vessel up to where the anchor is, what do they do
then?"

"Why, in the mean time," said Mr. George, "the sailors in the boat have
taken another anchor, and have gone forward with it to a new station;
and so, when the ship has come up near enough to the first anchor, they
shift the line and then proceed to warp to the second."

Rollo was much interested in these explanations; though, as most other
boys would have been in his situation, he was a little disappointed to
find himself mistaken in the opinion which he had advanced so
confidently, that warping would be impracticable except in the immediate
vicinity of the shore. Indeed, it often happens with boys, when they
begin to reach what may be called the reasoning age, that, in the
conversations which they hold with those older and better informed than
themselves, you can see very plainly that their curiosity and their
appetite for know