reed upon during the
whole time we were aboard. They told us at the Ferry Hotel that boys
were rather difficult to get in Cookham; but we instituted a vigorous
house-to-house search, and at last we ran a boy to earth and carried
him off.

It was most unfortunate for all concerned that the boy did not sleep
on board. There was, however, no room for him; so he came at seven in
the morning, and retired when his labors were over for the day. I say
he came; but in point of fact that was the difficulty with the boy. He
couldn't come. He came as far as he could: that is to say, he walked up
the tow-path until he was opposite the house-boat, and then he hallooed
to be taken on board, whereupon some one had to go in the dingy for him.
All the time we were in the house-boat that boy was never five minutes
late. Wet or fine, calm or rough, 7 A.M. found the boy on the tow-path
hallooing. No sooner were we asleep than the dewy morn was made hideous
by the boy. Lying in bed with the blankets over our heads to deaden his
cries, his fresh, lusty young voice pierced wood-work, blankets, sheets,
everything. "Ya-ho, ahoy, ya-ho, aho, ahoy!" So he kept it up. What
followed may easily be guessed. We all lay as silent as the grave, each
waiting for some one else to rise and bring the impatient lad across.
At last the stillness would be broken by some one's yelling out that he
would do for that boy. A second would mutter horribly in his sleep; a
third would make himself a favorite for the moment by shouting through
the wooden partition that it was the fifth's turn this morning. The
fifth would tell us where he would see the boy before he went across for
him. Then there would be silence again. Eventually some one would put an
ulster over his night-shirt, and sternly announce his intention of going
over and taking the boy's life. Hearing this, the others at once dropped
off to sleep. For a few days we managed to trick the boy by pulling up
our blinds and so conveying to his mind the impression that we were
getting up. Then he had not our breakfast ready when we did get up,
which naturally enraged us.

As soon as he got on board that boy made his presence felt. He was very
strong and energetic in the morning, and spent the first half-hour or so
in flinging coals at each other. This was his way of breaking them; and
he was by nature so patient and humble that he rather flattered himself
when a coal broke at the twentieth attempt. We used to drea