'em, 'cause there's a rock here and there
as would stop their net."

"I see," said Dick dubiously. Then, determined to know all--"No, I
don't quite see," he said. "I don't know what you mean by the crawler."

"Trawler, lad--trawler. I didn't say crawler," cried Josh. "A mussy
me!" he added softly.

"Well, trawler, then. What's a trawler?"

"Fore-an'-aft rig boat."

"Oh, I say!" cried Dick merrily, "it's all like Dutch to me. How am I
to know what a fore-an'-aft rig boat is?"

"A mussy me!" groaned Josh, to Will's great delight; "how your
eddication have been neglected! Don't you know what rig means?"

"Yes; the rigging of a ship."

"Or a boat," said Josh. "Well, don't you know what fore-and-aft means?"

"Not unless it's before and after, or behind."

"It ain't no before and no after; it's fore-and-aft," growled Josh.

"He's quite right, Josh," said Will, taking his new friend's side; "fore
means before, or forward, and aft means after, or behind."

"Oh! very well; have it your own way," said Josh, putting a pellet of
tobacco in his mouth. "I call it fore-and-aft."

"That's right too, Josh. Look here, sir, we call the rig of a boat or
ship fore-and-aft when the sails are flat, like they are in a cutter or
sloop or schooner. When I say flat I mean stretching from the front of
the vessel to the stern; and we call it square-rigged when the sails are
put across."

"Then there's lug-sails like them," said Josh, pointing to some
fishing-boats, whose brown sails stood out against the amber sky; "and
there's lots of other rigs as well."

"Yes; but what's a trawler?" cried Dick.

"It's a fore-and-aft rigged boat that trawls," said Will. "She has a
great net like a big night-cap stretched over on a spar, which we call a
trawl-beam, and this is lowered down, and as the boat sails it is
dragged along the bottom, and catches soles, and turbot, and plaice and
sometimes john-dory, and gurnet, and brill. They like sandy banks, such
as this is; and if there were no rocks the trawler would soon sweep this
clean."

"On'y, they can't run their trawl along here a-cause o' the rocks," said
Josh.

"Which would catch the net, and they'd p'r'aps lose it."

"But they might fish it up again."

"Oh, yes! I daresay they would," replied Will with a smile.

"I say," cried Dick, "I wish you wouldn't call things by such names.
What's a creeper?"

"These are creepers that we've just put down; grapnels."

"Ah,