"There! that very dollar came from the island, and I'm offerin' you
the fellows to it by the thousand. Why? says you. Because, says I,
you're a good lad, and I've took a fancy to see you in Parlyment.
That's why. An' it's no return I'm askin' you, but just to believe!"
He made for the back door again, and opened it, letting in the
sunlight; but the sunlight fell in two slanting rays, one on either
side of a dark object which all but filled the entrance, blocking out
my view of the back court beyond. It was the stern of a tall boat.
The boat, in fact, filled the small back court, leaving an alley-way
scarcely more than two feet wide along either party-wall. She rested
on the stocks, about three-parts finished, in shape very like a
whaleboat, and in measurement--so Captain Coffin informed me, with a
proprietary wave of the hand--some twenty-nix feet over all, with a
beam of nine feet six inches amidships. And even to a boy's eye she
showed herself a pretty model, though (as I say) unfinished, with a
foot and more of her ribs standing up bare and awaiting the top
strakes.
"Designed her myself, Brooks. Eh, but your friend Dan'l Coffin has
an eye for the shape of a boat, though no hand at pencilling, nor
what you might call the cabinet-making part of the job.
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