see it IS the source of the Nile we've discovered. What price North
Poles now?'

Alice said, 'Ah, but think of ices! I expect Oswald wishes it HAD been
the Pole, anyway.'

Oswald is naturally the leader, especially when following up what is
his own idea, but he knows that leaders have other duties besides just
leading. One is to assist weak or wounded members of the expedition,
whether Polar or Equatorish.

So the others had got a bit ahead through Oswald lending the tottering
Denny a hand over the rough places. Denny's feet hurt him, because when
he was a beaver his stockings had dropped out of his pocket, and boots
without stockings are not a bed of luxuriousness. And he is often
unlucky with his feet.

Presently we came to a pond, and Denny said--

'Let's paddle.'

Oswald likes Denny to have ideas; he knows it is healthy for the boy,
and generally he backs him up, but just now it was getting late and the
others were ahead, so he said--

'Oh, rot! come on.'

Generally the Dentist would have; but even worms will turn if they are
hot enough, and if their feet are hurting them. 'I don't care, I shall!'
he said.

Oswald overlooked the mutiny and did not say who was leader. He just
said--

'Well don't be all day about it,' for he is a kind-hearted boy and can
make allowances. So Denny took off his boots and went into the pool.
'Oh, it's ripping!' he said. 'You ought to come in.'

'It looks beastly muddy,' said his tolerating leader.

'It is a bit,' Denny said, 'but the mud's just as cool as the water, and
so soft, it squeezes between your toes quite different to boots.'

And so he splashed about, and kept asking Oswald to come along in.

But some unseen influence prevented Oswald doing this; or it may have
been because both his bootlaces were in hard knots.

Oswald had cause to bless the unseen influence, or the bootlaces, or
whatever it was.

Denny had got to the middle of the pool, and he was splashing about,
and getting his clothes very wet indeed, and altogether you would have
thought his was a most envious and happy state. But alas! the brightest
cloud had a waterproof lining. He was just saying--

'You are a silly, Oswald. You'd much better--' when he gave a
blood-piercing scream, and began to kick about.

'What's up?' cried the ready Oswald; he feared the worst from the way
Denny screamed, but he knew it could not be an old meat tin in this
quiet and jungular spot, like it was in the moat whe