“If we’d had a tender,” he explained, “we could have dropped anchor most anywhere and rowed ourselves ashore. Besides, every yacht ought to have a tender.”
They looked at three or four the next morning, but none was in good enough condition to please Arnold. “I want a tender,” he said, “but I don’t want it so tender it’ll fall to pieces!” In the end Mr. Tucker was commissioned to build one, a tiny cedar affair that would barely hold four persons without sinking. When it was finished, which was not until the middle of August, since Mr. Tucker was busy on another order, Arnold viewed it delightedly. “That’s fine,” he declared. “In the winter we can bring it into the house and put it on the mantel for an ornament!”
There were no more shipwrecks, now that the _Aydee_ was prepared for them, and I think that her skipper was slightly disappointed. But the knockabout provided a lot of fun and by the time the summer was nearing its end Arnold had become quite a proficient navigator and had acquired a coat of tan that was the envy of his friends at the Head. Toby said it was more than a coat, it was a regular ulster! The _Aydee_ sailed in two races in August, one a handicap affair in which her time allowance of a minute and forty seconds enabled her to almost but not quite win, and the other a contest for twenty-one-footers in which she was badly outdistanced. Perhaps the fact that Toby sailed the _Aydee_ in the first race and that Arnold and Frank Lamson manned her in the second may have had something to do with the results. Once imbued with the racing mania, Arnold liked nothing better than putting out into the bay and trying conclusions with any sailing craft that hove in sight. He didn’t much care how big the opponent might be or how much sail she carried. He was always ready and eager for a brush. Usually he was outsailed or outmaneuvered, but now and then he came home victor and was extremely proud until some craft unkindly beat him the next day.
But life wasn’t all racing, for the _Aydee_ was frequently put to more humdrum uses, as when, one fine day toward the last of the month, Arnold, Toby, Frank and Phebe embarked with many baskets and bundles and sailed away to a pleasant spot far down on the south shore of the bay and picnicked. Confidentially, both Toby and Frank favored using the _Frolic_ for the expedition, but Arnold nowadays considered motorboating poor sport and wouldn’t listen to any such proposal. Fortunately, they had a good breeze all day and the _Aydee_ performed beautifully. The boys took bathing suits along and as soon as the anchor was dropped they rowed ashore, converted a clump of bushes into a bath-house, and got ready for the water. Then they returned to the yacht and dived off the deck to their hearts’ content, while Phebe, more practical, placed the baskets in the tender and went ashore to “set the table.” They lunched on a grassy knoll between the bay and a winding inlet. Every one had provided a share of the provender and, while there was some duplication, the result included a marvelous variety of viands. Frank pretended to think picnics a great bore, but it was observed by the others that he did his full share of eating. On the whole, Frank was fairly good company that day, and Toby and Phebe liked him better than they ever had before. Possibly Arnold, whose guest he was, had cautioned him to make himself agreeable.