“If I were you I’d change the name of your launch, though,” Arnold advised. “Ladies might feel sort of――of nervous about going in a boat with a name like that.”
“What would you call her?” asked Toby, dubiously. “Changing the name might change the luck, and my luck’s been pretty good lately.”
“I don’t know. You could find another name all right. Say, Toby, why couldn’t I come in on it? I wouldn’t want any of the money, of course, but we could use the _Frolic_ any time we had a lot of passengers. Would you mind if I helped?”
“No, I’d be awfully glad to have you, only――do you think your father would want you to?”
“He wouldn’t mind. I’ll ask him tonight. I could bring this boat over in the morning and then we could use whichever one we wanted to. Maybe if there were ladies going over they’d rather go in the _Frolic_.”
“I guess maybe they would,” laughed Toby. “But there wouldn’t be many ladies, probably. I suppose if I took other folks over to Johnstown for fifty cents I couldn’t ask Mr. Whitney to pay any more, could I?”
“Why not? He made a bargain with you, didn’t he? If you got a dollar and a half from him, besides what you made from other people――――”
But Toby shook his head. “It wouldn’t be fair. I’d ask him the same as the rest. Only, maybe there won’t be any rest. It wouldn’t do any harm to try it for a couple of weeks, though, eh? And it might turn out fine!”
“It will! I’ll bet there’s lots of folks over at the Head who’d be mighty glad to get over to Johnstown if they didn’t have to go all around by road. Why, it must be ten or twelve miles by the road!”
All the way up the river to the landing at Riverport, all the way to the freight house, all the way back, laden with a forty-pound box of yacht hardware, and all the way home again they talked over the ferry scheme, Arnold becoming even more enthusiastic than Toby. They developed the plan until, in their imaginations, they could see a whole flotilla of ferryboats crossing the bay to Johnstown and Riverport and around to Shinnecock and even as far as Mattituck! And real ferryboats, too; fine white and gold cabin launches holding as many as thirty persons! And Toby was to stand at the wheel and navigate while Arnold, in a resplendent white duck suit and cap with crossed anchors on it was to collect the fares!