Then they reappeared, their small boat so deep that the water almost spilled over the sides, Wink Wheeler struggling with a pair of ludicrously short oars and the other five laughingly urging him on.
"Throw a couple of fenders over, Han," instructed Steve, "and stand by with your boat-hook." The _Follow Me's_ tender crept alongside amidst noisy greetings, Perry performing excruciatingly on the whistle until pulled away, and in another moment the visitors were aboard.

They were a nice-looking, upstanding lot, already well sunburned by a week afloat.

Wink Wheeler was the oldest of the six, for he was eighteen.

Harry Corwin, Bert Alley and Caspar Temple were seventeen and George Browne, or "Brownie," as he was called, and Tom Corwin were sixteen.

First of all they had to see the boat and so the whole gathering trooped from one end to the other, exclaiming and admiring.
"The _Follow Me_'s a regular tub compared with this palace," said Harry Corwin.