[Illustration:  Fig. 193.  The Snotter.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 194.  Jib-sail of Scooter Scow.]

Scooter Sailing.

But to return to our sail home to Lamington, we were not out on the open water long before the current carried us back to the ice ledge.  Reddy jumped off and soon returned with the steering oar; then we proceeded on our way homeward, now in the water and now on ice.  Once or twice the scow was unable to climb out of the water, because she had not sufficient headway, and was clumsy and heavy with four boys aboard.  Then we had to push off until we could get a sufficient start.  It struck me that while Dutchy was quite clever to think of such a rig, yet it was very clumsy and capable of much improvement.  Bill wasn’t saying very much all this time, and I could see he was doing a lot of thinking.  Evidently he was planning some improvement, but Bill was a very considerate fellow, and did not want to spoil Dutchy’s pleasure just then by telling him how much better a scooter he might have built.  It wasn’t until after supper, when a meeting of t he S. S. I. E. E. of W. C. I. was called, that Bill carne out with his scheme.

A Meeting of the Society.

“Why not mount the sailing canoe on runners, instead of the scow?  You would have a very light rig then, and it would sail like a streak.”

“Mr. President,” said Reddy, “your plan sounds first-rate, but how are you going to fasten runners onto the canoe?”

“I’ve thought all that out,” replied Bill.  “If we can only get hold of a pair of sleigh runners it won’t take long to rig up the sled boat.”

Dutchy, who had looked rather crestfallen at a suggestion of an improvement on his pet invention, now suddenly brightened up.

“I know where we can get the sleigh runners!” he exclaimed.  “Dad has an old ramshackle sleigh in the barn that is just falling to pieces with dry rot.  I’ll ask him for it to-night.”

“Do you think you can get it?” inquired Bill.

“I guess so,” Dutchy answered, rather doubtfully.  “But say, suppose we send a delegation to see him about it?”

An Interview with Mr. Van Syckel.

This was agreed upon, and in the morning, as soon as breakfast had been downed, the entire society marched in a body into Mr. Van Syckel’s library.  I was appointed spokesman, with Bill to back me, while the rest of the party were strung out behind, with Dutchy bringing up the rear.  Mr. Van Syckel was not the man to take much interest in boys’ work, but we happened to strike him at the right moment, and before our interview was over we had told him all our experiences of the summer before and all our plans for the future.  Then we did a good turn for Dutchy, too.  Mr. Van Syckel had always considered his boy a “know-nothing,” and was very much surprised to find that he had invented the scooter scow.  Why, he actually seemed proud of his son, much to Dutchy’s embarrassment.  After that there was no trouble about getting the sleigh runners, and Mr. Van Syckel forgot the objections he had offered at first.