She was just such a boat as Mrs.Kinzer would naturally have provided for her boy,--stout, well-made, and sensible,--without any bad habits of upsetting or the like.

Not too large for Dabney to manage all alone, "The Jenny," as he called her, and as her name was painted on the stern, was all the better for having two on board, and had room in her then for more.
"The inlet's pretty narrow for a long reach through the marsh," said Dabney, "and as crooked as a ram's horn.

I'll steer, and you pull, till we're out o' that, and then I'll take the oars." "I might as well row out to the crab-grounds," said Ford, as he pitched his coat forward, and took his seat at the oars.

"All ready ?" "Ready," said Dab; and "The Jenny" glided gracefully away from the landing with the starting-push he gave her.
Ford Foster had had oars in his hands before, but his experience had been limited to a class of vessels different in some respects from the one he was in now.
He was short of something, at all events.

It may have been skill, or it may have been legs or discretion; but, whatever was lacking, at the third or fourth stroke the oar-blades went a little too deeply below the smooth surface of the water.