sted, it was as
good as if two horses had been harnessed to the boat.

When they had arrived at a point in the stream where the
assistant-boatman dwelt, a little way from the bank, the boat was
moored, and the two men landed, after exhorting the children to sit
still. But the children did not do that; or at least they obeyed only
for a very short time. They must be peeping into the basket in which
the eels and the sucking-pig had been placed, and they must needs pull
the sucking-pig out, and take it in their hands, and feel and touch it
all over; and as both wanted to hold it at the same time, it came to
pass that they let it fall into the water, and the sucking-pig drifted
away with the stream--and here was a terrible event!

Ib jumped ashore, and ran a little distance along the bank, and
Christine sprang after him.

"Take me with you!" she cried.

And in a few minutes they were deep in the thicket, and could no
longer see either the boat or the bank. They ran on a little farther,
and then Christine fell down on the ground and began to cry; but Ib
picked her up.

"Follow me!" he cried. "Yonder lies the house."

But the house was not yonder. They wandered on and on, over the dry,
rustling, last year's leaves, and over fallen branches that crackled
beneath their feet. Soon they heard a loud piercing scream. They stood
still and listened, and presently the scream of an eagle sounded
through the wood. It was an ugly scream, and they were frightened at
it; but before them, in the thick wood, the most beautiful blueberries
grew in wonderful profusion. They were so inviting, that the children
could not do otherwise than stop; and they lingered for some time,
eating the blueberries till they had quite blue mouths and blue
cheeks. Now again they heard the cry they had heard before.

"We shall get into trouble about the pig," said Christine.

"Come, let us go to our house," said Ib; "it is here in the wood."

[Illustration: IB AND CHRISTINE MEET THE GIPSY.]

And they went forward. They presently came to a wood, but it did not
lead them home; and darkness came on, and they were afraid. The
wonderful stillness that reigned around was interrupted now and then
by the shrill cries of the great horrid owl and of the birds that were
strange to them. At last they both lost themselves in a thicket.
Christine cried, and Ib cried too; and after they had bemoaned
themselves for a time, they threw themselves down on the dry leave