the
orders--"Climb to the top of the shutter, Nils! Pass that rope round the
upper hinge; tie it fast! Now the other rope on the lower hinge. Right!
The same with the other ropes--bind them fast to the other
shutter-hinges!"

Every order was promptly and skilfully obeyed.

"Nils, are you sure the boats are perfectly watertight?" said the
mistress, with, for the first time, a shadow of anxiety in her
determined face.

"Tight as a bottle!" was the immediate reply. "We had them filled with
water for the last examination, to float the boats the children had
made. The ships and such like were here, and the row-boats and canoes in
the other."

"I saw them! I saw them all!" exclaimed a little chap, with great
delight. "My brother had the prize for his ship, and he made it every
bit himself." The eager memories that came to the minds of the children
were chatted about with an intensity that made the boats of the moment
to be almost for the time forgotten.

Now came the real launching of the boats. With a proper amount of
drawing in and letting out and holding fast on the part of Nils and the
teacher, the long boxes sat at last on the water like a pair of
contented swans.

"Get down into the boat you are to be captain of, and I will hand down
the oars for us both. Lay mine across my boat and yours across yours.
Your passengers are to come down first. There will be four for each of
us."

The little schoolmistress, putting on her coat and fur cap, backed up to
one of her little girls, saying, "Put your arms round my neck, and you
shall ride to the boat."

Two chubby arms went willingly round the neck of the teacher, as they
had done many a time before on a less momentous occasion. So the little
one, with her eyes away from the window, was backed up to it, to be
lifted down by Nils with a merry shout as he landed the first passenger.
The others followed in the same style, and all the eight were cheerily
deposited in high good-humour.

"Now I'll come down, too," said the schoolmistress, and she came down
the rope as if she were in a gymnasium. She took her place in the centre
of her boat, with two delighted children before her and two more behind
her.

"Cut loose, Nils! One rope as long as you can, and the other short up to
the stern; and then give me your knife, and I'll do the same for mine.
Now start, Nils! I'll follow."

The orders were rapidly given and promptly obeyed, and then the little
party started across