be getting home. I can't tell
you how much obliged to you I am for feeding me. I believe I should have
fainted if it hadn't been for that tongue."

"It was a pleasure to us," said Priscilla. "We'd eaten all we could
before you came."

"I'm afraid," said Frank politely, "that it wasn't very nice. We ought
to have had knives and forks or at least a tumbler to drink out of. I
don't know what you must think of us."

"Think of you!" said Miss Rutherford. "I think you're the two nicest
children I ever met."

She stumped off and joined Jimmy Kinsella. Priscilla saw her putting on
her shoes and stockings as the boat rowed away. She shouted a farewell.
Miss Rutherford waved a stocking in reply.

"There," said Priscilla, turning to Frank, "what do you think of that?
The two nicest children! I don't mind of course; but I do call it rather
rough on you after talking so grand and having on your best first eleven
coat and all."

CHAPTER IX

Frank learned several things while the sails were being hoisted. The
word halyard became familiar to him and connected itself definitely
with certain ropes. He discovered that a sheet is, oddly enough, not an
expanse of canvas, but another rope. He impressed carefully on his mind
the part of the boat in which he might, under favourable circumstances,
expect to find the centreboard tackle.

The wind, which had dropped completely at low water, sprang up again,
this time from the west, with the rising tide. This was pleasant and
promised a fair run home, but Priscilla eyed the sky suspiciously. She
was weather-wise.

"It'll die clean away," she said, "towards evening. It always does on
this kind of day when it has worked round with the sun. Curious things
winds are, Cousin Frank, aren't they? Rather like ices in some ways, I
always think."

Frank had considerable experience of ices, and had been obliged, while
playing various games, to take some notice of the wind from time to
time; but he missed the point of Priscilla's comparison. She explained
herself.

"If you put in a good spoonful at once," she said, "it gives you a pain
in some tooth or other and you don't enjoy it. On the other hand, if you
put in a very little bit it gets melted away before you're able to
taste it properly. That's just the way the wind behaves when you're out
sailing. Either it has you clinging on to the main sheet for all you're
worth or else it dies away and leaves you flapping. It's only about once