hile Mackenzie
launched his shallop, clambered in, and seizing the clothes-prop from
Cook, pushed off cautiously. His craft was very low in the water and
looked particularly wobbly, and they were terribly afraid it would
upset. In spite of their anxiety they could not help seeing the
humorous side of the episode, and they choked with laughter as the tub
gyrated and bobbed about, and the old man clutched frantically at his
pole. He made first of all for the floating raft, secured it with a
piece of rope, and dragged it to the island. The girls straightened
their faces and welcomed him with polite expressions of gratitude.

He received their thanks ungraciously--perhaps he had seen them
laughing--pushed the raft to a spot where they could board it, and
remarked tartly:

"Ye deserve to stop where ye are the night, in my opeenion. Get on
with ye now, and paddle yerselves back. Giving a body all this
trouble--and me with my leg bad, too!"

It was possibly a satisfaction to Mackenzie that Miss Beasley shared
his views as to the culpability of the delinquents and the necessity
of giving them their deserts. They were summoned to the study after
prayers.

"What did she say?" whispered Ardiune, Morvyth, and Katherine, as they
escorted the crestfallen pair upstairs to the dormitory.

"All recreation stopped for three days, and learn the whole of Gray's
Elegy!" choked the sinners.

"Gray's Elegy! You'll never do it! Oh, you poor chickens! The Bumble
can be a perfect beast sometimes! I say, what was it like on the
island?"

"Top-hole!" responded Raymonde, as she mopped her eyes.

The very next day came the news that the farmer had decided to run up
a number of corrugated-iron hutments in one of his own fields to
accommodate his lady workers, and that the Squire had promised to pay
the rent of old Wilkinson's cottage so long as he was left there
undisturbed. Everybody felt it was a happy solution of the
difficulty.

"After all, the island might have been rather an awkward place for
him," admitted Raymonde. "I don't know how he'd have got backwards and
forwards without a drawbridge."

"Unless he'd used a wash-tub," giggled Aveline. "I shan't forget
Mackenzie in a hurry! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my
life. Talk of people looking sour! He might have been eating sloes.
Cook's taken it personally, I'm afraid. I asked her for some whitening
this morning to clean my regimental button, and she scowled and
woul