l, and, spreading themselves out upon it in a
row, they proceeded to do the work required upon the sail, leaning over
upon the yard above, and standing upon a rope, which was stretched for
the purpose along the whole length of it below.

"I wonder if _I_ could climb up there," said Rollo. "Do you suppose they
would let me try?"

"No, indeed!" said Jane, very earnestly; "you must not try, by any
means."

"I believe that I _could_ climb up there," said Rollo; "that is, if the
vessel would stop rocking to and fro, and hold still."

Presently, however, a boy, who appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen
years of age, and who was upon another mast, accomplished a feat which
even Rollo himself admitted that he should not dare to undertake. It
seemed that he had some operation to perform upon a part of the rigging
down some fifteen feet from where he was; so, with a rope hung over his
shoulder, he came down hand over hand, by a single rope or cable called
a _stay_, until he reached the place where the work was to be performed.
Here he stopped, and, clinging to the rope that he had come down upon
with his legs and one hand, he contrived with the other hand to fasten
one end of the short rope which he had brought with him to the stay, and
then, carrying the other end across, he fastened it to another cable
which was near. He then seated himself upon this cross rope as upon a
seat, and clinging to his place by his legs, he had his hands free for
his work. When he had finished his work he untied the cross rope, and
then went up the cable hand over hand a he had come down.

[Illustration]

"I am sure I could not do that," said Rollo. "And I should not think
that any body but a monkey could do it, or a spider."

In fact, the lines of rigging, as seen from the place where Rollo and
Jane were seated, looked so fine, and the men appeared so small, that
the whole spectacle naturally reminded one of a gigantic spider's web,
with black spiders of curious forms ascending and descending upon them,
so easily and adroitly did the men pass to and fro and up and down,
attaching new lines to new points, and then running off with them, as a
spider would do with her thread, wherever they were required. But after
all, in respect to the power of running about among lines and rigging,
the spider is superior to man. She can not only run up and down far more
easily and readily wherever she wishes to go, but she can make new
attachments with a