the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn
out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead;
you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey
the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture
of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft. It was really a
dangerous weapon. He had also made us a small anchor according to plan;
nor did he dip too deeply into our pocket-money.

Then the mast and square-sail, fitted out of a window-blind, took up a
considerable space; for although it was perfectly calm, a breeze might
arise. And what with these and the pole for punting occasionally, the
deck of the vessel was in that approved state of confusion which always
characterises a ship on the point of departure. Nor must Orion's
fishing-rod and gear be forgotten, nor the cigar-box at the stern (a
present from the landlady at the inn) which contained a chart of the
mere and a compass.

With a 'yeo--heave-ho!' we levered her an inch at a time, and then
loosened her by working her from side to side, and so, panting and
struggling, shoved the punt towards the deep. Slowly a course was shaped
out of the creek--past the bar and then along the edge of the thick
weeds, stretching so far out into the water that the moorhen feeding
near the land was beyond reach of shot. From the green matted mass
through which a boat could scarcely have been forced came a slight
uncertain sound, now here now yonder, a faint 'suck-sock;' and the
dragon-flies were darting to and fro.

The only ripple of the surface, till broken by the sculls, was where the
swallows dipped as they glided, leaving a circle of tiny wavelets that
barely rolled a yard. Past the low but steep bluff of sand rising sheer
out of the water, drilled with martins' holes and topped by a sapling
oak in the midst of a great furze bush: yellow bloom of the furze, tall
brake fern nestling under the young branches, woodbine climbing up and
bearing sweet coronals of flower.

Past the barley that came down to the willows by the shore--ripe and
white under the bright sunshine, but yonder beneath the shadow of the
elms with a pale tint of amber. Past broad rising meadows, where under
the oaks on the upper ground the cattle were idly lying out of the
sultry heat.

Then the barren islands, strewn with stone and mussel-shells glistening
in the sunshine, over which in a gale the waves made a clean sweep,
rendered the