thought."

"Well, he's a good old fellow in his way, I know, but what are we to be
at then? something I must do, if it's only to keep me out of mischief."

"It's a lovely day; let us hire a boat, and have a row," suggested
Coleman.

"That's not against the laws, is it?" asked Oaklands.

"Not a bit," replied Coleman; "we used to go pulling about like bricks
last summer, and Mildman rather approved of it than otherwise, and said
it was a very healthy exercise."

"Yes, that will do," said Lawless; "I feel savage this morning, and
a good pull will take it out of me as well as anything. Now, don't go
wasting time; let's get ready, and be off;" and accordingly in less than
half an hour we were prepared, and on our way to the beach.

"How are we going to do it?" inquired Lawless; "you'll take an oar,
Oaklands?"

Oaklands replied in the affirmative.

"Can you row, Fairlegh?"

I answered that I could a little.

~96~~"That will do famously, then," said Lawless; "we'll have a
four-oar; Wilson has a capital little boat that will be just the thing;
Freddy can steer, he's a very fair hand at it, and we four fellows will
pull, so that we need not be bothered with a boatman. I do abominate
those chaps, they are such a set of humbugs."

No objection was made to this plan. Lawless succeeded in getting the
boat he wished for; it was launched without any misadventure, and we
took our places, and began pulling away merrily, with the wind (what
little there was) and tide both in our favour.

The morning was beautiful: it was one of those enjoyable days, which
sometimes occur in early spring, in which Nature, seeming to overleap
at a bound the barrier between winter and summer, gives us a delightful
foretaste of the good things she has in store for us. The clear bright
sea, its surface just ruffled by a slight breeze from the south-west,
sparkled in the sunshine, and fell in diamond showers from our oars as
we raised them out of the water, while the calm serenity of the deep
blue sky above us appeared, indeed, a fitting emblem of that heaven, in
which "the wicked cease from troubling, and the wear are at rest".

The peaceful beauty of the scene seemed to impress even the restless
spirits of which our little party was composed, and, by common consent,
we ceased rowing, and suffered the boat to drift with the tide, merely
pulling a stroke now and then to keep her head in the right direction.
After drifting for some twenty minute