e perceives his mistake--the divergence was to the _left_! In
agonies of haste he shoots to the other side, where he discovers that
the divergence must have been in his own excited brain, for the house
still holds on the even tenor of its way; and Ian, puffing straight
ahead, tightens the rope, and helps it on its voyage.

Presently there is a sudden, and this time a decided divergence to the
right--probably caused by some undercurrent acting on the foundations.
Away goes the punt in the opposite direction, and now Goliath and
David together were babes to Ian! Talk of horse-power.
Elephanto-hippopotamus-Power is a more appropriate term. The muscles of
his arms rise up like rolls of gutta-percha; the knotted veins stand out
on his flushed forehead, but all in vain--the house continues to
diverge, and Ian feeling the game to be all but lost, pulls with the
concentrated energy of rage and despair. The sculls bend like wands,
the rowlocks creak, the thole-pins crack. It won't do. As well might
mortal man pull against Niagara falls.

At this moment of horrible disappointment the house touches something
submerged--a post, a fence, a mound; he knows not nor cares what--which
checks the divergence and turns the house back in the right direction.

What a rebound there is in Ian's heart! He would cheer if there were a
cubic inch of air to spare in his labouring chest--but there is not, and
what of it remains must be used in a tough pull to the opposite side,
for the sheer given to the building has been almost too strong. In a
few minutes his efforts have been successful. The house is bearing
steadily though slowly down in the right direction.

Ian rests on his oars a few seconds, and wipes his heated brow.

So--in the great battle of life we sometimes are allowed to pause and
breathe awhile in the very heat of conflict; and happy is it for us if
our thoughts and hearts go out towards Him whose love is ever near to
bless those who trust in it.

He is drawing near to the knoll now, and there seems every chance of
success; but the nearer he draws to the goal the greater becomes the
risk of divergence, for while the slack water at the head of the knoll
becomes slacker, so that the house seems to have ceased moving, the
diverging currents on either side become swifter, and their
suction-power more dangerous. The anxiety of the pilot at this stage,
and his consequent shooting from side to side, is far more trying than
h