managed to conceal a
shade of annoyance. "What is it?" he hastily added, fearing his father
might have been taken ill. "Will you have some brandy?"

"When will the next omnibus overtake us? When? When?" the old man cried,
growing more excited every moment.

Norman looked gloomy. "Give me time," he said. "I must think it over."
And once more the travellers passed on in silence--a silence only broken
by the distant squeals of the unfortunate little pigs, who were still
being provisionally transferred from sty to sty, under the personal
superintendence of the Commander-in-Chief.

KNOT IX.

A SERPENT WITH CORNERS.

"Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

"It'll just take one more pebble."

"What ever _are_ you doing with those buckets?"

The speakers were Hugh and Lambert. Place, the beach of Little Mendip.
Time, 1.30, P.M. Hugh was floating a bucket in another a size larger,
and trying how many pebbles it would carry without sinking. Lambert was
lying on his back, doing nothing.

For the next minute or two Hugh was silent, evidently deep in thought.
Suddenly he started. "I say, look here, Lambert!" he cried.

"If it's alive, and slimy, and with legs, I don't care to," said
Lambert.

"Didn't Balbus say this morning that, if a body is immersed in liquid,
it displaces as much liquid as is equal to its own bulk?" said Hugh.

"He said things of that sort," Lambert vaguely replied.

"Well, just look here a minute. Here's the little bucket almost quite
immersed: so the water displaced ought to be just about the same bulk.
And now just look at it!" He took out the little bucket as he spoke, and
handed the big one to Lambert. "Why, there's hardly a teacupful! Do you
mean to say _that_ water is the same bulk as the little bucket?"

"Course it is," said Lambert.

"Well, look here again!" cried Hugh, triumphantly, as he poured the
water from the big bucket into the little one. "Why, it doesn't half
fill it!"

"That's _its_ business," said Lambert. "If Balbus says it's the same
bulk, why, it _is_ the same bulk, you know."

"Well, I don't believe it," said Hugh.

"You needn't," said Lambert. "Besides, it's dinner-time. Come along."

They found Balbus waiting dinner for them, and to him Hugh at once
propounded his difficulty.

"Let's get you helped first," said Balbus, briskly cutting away at the
joint. "You know the old proverb 'Mutton first, mechanics afterwards'?"

The boys did _