"Well, that was not so very bad, was it, Jack?" Mrs. Robson asked after her visitors had left.
"No, mother, it wasn't. You see, it was ever so much better their coming here than it would have been if I had gone to the inn, because there was you for them to talk to, so that really there was not much said to me. If it had been at the inn there would have been nothing to talk about at all, except about the wreck. Well, now that is over I will go down and see how the bawley is; but I had best change my things first. Uncle was going to get her up as high as he could at the top of the tide, so as to be able to look at her keel."
Jack found that his uncle and Tom had turned out at three o'clock in the morning, and had got the _Bessy_ as high up as possible on the sloping shore, just beyond the houses. They were standing beside her now, while Benting, the local boat-builder, was examining her bottom.
"Well, Jack, you have taken it out in sleep this morning," his uncle said.
"That I have, uncle. I never woke until eight o'clock, so I had just twelve hours' sleep."
"Nothing like a good sleep, Jack, when you have had a hard day's work; and yesterday was enough to take it out of anyone."
"Yes, her forefoot is sprung just where it joins the keel; she came down just on the joint."
"That will be a rather nasty job to get right, won't it?"
"Yes, Jack, Benting says she must have a new stem altogether. He does not think the keel is damaged, but the stem is cracked right through."
"That will cost a lot, won't it?" Jack said.
"Yes, it is a nasty job, Jack; because, of course, she will want a lot of fresh planks in her. In fact, she will want pretty well rebuilding forward of the mast."
"It will cost about twenty pounds to make a good job of it," Benting said as he joined them. "I shouldn't like to take the job for less, not on contract. If I did day-work it might come to a little less or a little more, I cannot say."
Jack looked anxiously up into his uncle's face, for he knew that twenty pounds was a serious matter.
"It won't be at my expense, Jack," Ben replied to his look. "Captain Murchison came down at seven o'clock this morning and had a look at her with me. I told him yesterday that I was afraid she had damaged herself on the sand, as she had made a lot of water on her way up. He said that I was to have her examined at once and get an estimate for repairing her thoroughly, and that he would undertake it should be paid. He asked what her age was. Of course I told him she was only four years old, and that I had only finished paying off the money I borrowed when I had her built, last year. He said that as she was only four years old she was worth spending the money on; but if she had been an old boat, it would not have been worth while throwing money away on her. But Benting says he can make her as good as new again."