As those who toil usually have a relish for their food, the appearance of the blue-peter was far from being unwelcome to those on board of the schooner.  They got into the boat, and were sculled ashore by Mulford, who, seaman-like, used only one hand in performing this service.  In a very few minutes they were all seated at the little table, which was brought out into the tent-verandah for the enjoyment of the breeze.

“So far, well,” said Mulford, after his appetite was mainly appeased; Rose picking crumbs, and affecting to eat, merely to have the air of keeping him company; one of the minor proofs of the little attentions that spring from the affections.  “So far, well.  The sails are bent, and though they might be never and better, they can be made to answer.  It was fortunate to find anything like a second suit on board a Mexican craft of that size at all.  As it is, we have foresail, mainsail, and jib, and with that canvas I think we might beat the schooner down to Key West in the course of a day and a night.  If I dared to venture outside of the reef, it might be done sooner even, for they tell me there is a four-knot current sometimes in that track; but I do not like to venture outside, so short-handed.  The current inside must serve our turn, and we shall get smooth water by keeping under the lee of the rocks.  I only hope we shall not get into an eddy as we go further from the end of the reef, and into the bight of the coast.”

“Is there danger of that?” demanded Rose, whose quick intellect had taught her many of these things, since her acquaintance with vessels.

“There may be, looking at the formation of the reef and islands, though I know nothing of the fact by actual observation.  This is my first visit in this quarter.”

“Eddies are serious matters,” put in Mrs. Budd, “and my poor husband could not abide them.  Tides are good things; but eddies are very disagreeable.”

“Well, aunty, I should think eddies might sometimes be as welcome as tides.  It must depend, however, very much on the way one wishes to go.”

“Rose, you surprise me!  All that you have read, and all that you have heard, must have shown you the difference.  Do they not say `a man is floating with the tide,’ when things are prosperous with him—­and don’t ships drop down with the tide, and beat the wind with the tide?  And don’t vessels sometimes `tide it up to town,’ as it is called, and is n’t it thought an advantage to have the tide with you?”

“All very true, aunty; but I do not see how that makes eddies any the worse.”

“Because eddies are the opposite of tides, child.  When the tide goes one way, the eddy goes another—­is n’t it so, Harry Mulford?  You never heard of one’s floating in an eddy.”

“That’s what we mean by an eddy, Mrs. Budd,” answered the handsome mate, delighted to hear Rose’s aunt call him by an appellation so kind and familiar,—­a thing she had never done previously to the intercourse which had been the consequence of their present situation.  “Though I agree with Rose in thinking an eddy may be a good or a bad thing, and very much like a tide, as one wishes to steer.”