There were days, though, clear and soft and warm, when it seemed a sin to do anything but loaf over the hand-lines and spank the drifting "sun-scalds" with an oar; and there were days of light airs, when Harvey was taught how to steer the schooner from one berth to another.
It thrilled through him when he first felt the keel answer to his band on the spokes and slide over the long hollows as the foresail scythed back and forth against the blue sky.

That was magnificent, in spite of Disko saying that it would break a snake's back to follow his wake.
But, as usual, pride ran before a fall.

They were sailing on the wind with the staysail--an old one, luckily--set, and Harvey jammed her right into it to show Dan how completely he had mastered the art.

The foresail went over with a bang, and the foregaff stabbed and ripped through the staysail, which was, of course, prevented from going over by the mainstay.

They lowered the wreck in awful silence, and Harvey spent his leisure hours for the next few days under Tom Platt's lee, learning to use a needle and palm.