"No - no curves at the end. A very slight workmanlike curve from
side to side, with a good grip at each knee, and little pieces
welded on," said the deck-beams.

"Fiddle!" cried the iron pillars of the deep, dark hold. "Who
ever heard of curves? Stand up straight; be a perfectly round
column, and carry tons of good solid weight - like that! There!"
A big sea smashed on the deck above, and the pillars stiffened
themselves to the load.

"Straight up and down is not bad," said the frames, who ran that
way in the sides of the ship, "but you must also expand yourselves
sideways. Expansion is the law of life, children. Open out! open
out!"

"Come back!" said the deck-beams, savagely, as the upward heave
of the sea made the frames try to open. "Come back to your bearings,
you slack-jawed irons!"

"Rigidity! Rigidity! Rigidity!" thumped the engines. "Absolute,
unvarying rigidity - rigidity!"

"You see!" whined the rivets, in chorus. "No two of you will ever
pull alike, and - and you blame it all on us. We only know how to
go through a plate and bite down on both sides so that it can't,
and mustn't, and sha'n't move."

"I've got one fraction of an inch play, at any rate," said the
garboard-strake, triumphantly. So he had, and all the bottom of