it was bad for her, she ought to have left her
lee helm on shore."

"What did she carry it for?" asked Nat Long.

"She carried it because she couldn't leave it behind," replied Dory. "It
is a bad habit, such as some men carry with them through life, for the
reason that they can't get rid of it."

"I say, Dory, what is a lee helm?" asked Thad. "You know that we don't
know any thing more about sailing a boat than we do about making a
watch."

"You used to sail Mr. Jones's boat: but we never went with you then,
Dory; and we never had any chance to learn how to sail a boat," added
Corny. "I have no more idea what a lee helm is than I have what the man
in the moon had for dinner to-day."

"That's what's the matter with all of us," added Thad, laughing.

"I didn't mean to bother you, fellows; but that is just what ailed the
Goldwing, and she had it bad. But any boat would have behaved in the
same way if she was not properly trimmed. I don't think Mr.
Lapham--that's the man that owned the Goldwing, and was drowned; I
couldn't think of his name before--understood a boat very well. Look
here, fellows!"

Dory Dornwood pointed to a mast-hole in the deck, which had been
stopped. The foremast had been moved nearly two feet aft of the place
where it had been stepped by the builder.

"The boatman told me that Mr. Lapham had changed the place of the
foremast, so that he could make room for a locker in the head. If she
had a bigger jib, it would be all right. The ballast was badly stowed,
and that is what made her carry a lee helm."

"Now we know all about what did it, but we don't know what a lee helm
is," added Thad, laughing. "I wish you would tell us what the thing is
before you say any thing else."

"A boat ought to carry a weather helm, though not too much of it,"
replied Dory, knitting his brow as though he was struggling with a big
idea, though he was only thinking how he should make his companions
understand him.

The other members of the Goldwing Club could pull an oar or handle a
paddle; and that was really all they knew about boating, though they
were very ambitious to learn.

"I believe that. A boat ought to carry a weather helm. I think the
legislature ought to make a law that a boat should carry a weather helm,
and make it a state-prison offence to carry a lee helm, which is very
bad," said Corny Minkfield.

"If you are going to do all the talking, I haven't any thing more to
say," replied Dory with dig