For seven years they had asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old _Spray ?"_ The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange: at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old _Spray._ "Breaking her up, I s'pose ?" "No; going to rebuild her." Great was the amazement.

"Will it pay ?" was the question which for a year or more I answered by declaring that I would make it pay.
My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard, for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the frame of the new vessel.

I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler.
The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured till set.

Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor, and the neighbors made the work sociable.

It was a great day in the _Spray_ shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new keel.