HOME AT THE HAVEN.

able to furnish them with a set of rudder-irons small
enough to suit their little boat. These irons were the
sort of hinges which were to connect the rudder to the
boat, and enable it to move from side to side, at the
will of the steersman, but they were so contrived, that
the rudder could be taken off, or unshipped, as Captain
Osborne said, when it was not wanted. The rudder,
and the piece of wood which fitted on to the top of it,
called a yoke, with its two pieces of rope, which were
to be pulled first on one side and then on the other,
as they steered, was thought by Lucy to be the pret-
tiest part of the boat, although it was altogether, as
her uncle said, "as trim a little craft as ever was built."
 Lucy's birthday drew near, and there was nothing
to be done but the pitching and painting of the boat
and the making of a pair of oars. A painter who was
coming to re-paint the greenhouse was to do the
former, and Uncle Osborne undertook to get the oars
finished off whilst Edward was at school the last three
days. Lucy thought something very terrible had hap-
pened, from Edward's look of consternation, as he
came in one evening to tell his mother and her quite
an unexpected difficulty about the boat. All finished
as it was, and ready for pitching and painting in the
open air, it could not be got down the crooked little
staircase that led up to the workshop! Captain
Osborne had always expected that it could be hoisted
up on end in such a manner as to come down very
easily, but it was now found that this could not be
managed, so that there was nothing left, but to take
out the window of the workshop and lower the boat
with ropes into the yard below. Jack had been sent
up to Farmer Whicher's to borrow some ropes for this
purpose, and when they arrived Mrs. Osborne and Lucy,
and the maid-servants, went out into t]f yard to see
 is