are, but too much that
way. We're a house divided against itself, Wilks. Either you must turn
round or I must, and, if I do, then you'll be the stern and I the bow."

"I thought there was something wrong, Corry, but the excitement incident
on a new sensation absorbed my attention. Of course, I shall move, as it
would be very confusing, not to say ridiculous, to invert the relative
positions of the boat."

"Then, Wilks dear, wait till I paddle her near the bank, for fear of
accidents."

When the bank was reached, the dominie landed, picked up his board and
placed it farther back, then sat down gingerly, with his legs spread out
before him, and began paddling on the same side as his companion, which
zigzagged the frail craft more than ever, and finally brought it to the
shore. Ben Toner, who had been laughing at the city innocents, ran down
to a point opposite the dug-out, and told them to paddle on opposite
sides, giving directions how to steer with one of the emaciated
propellers. After that, the course of the vessel was a source of
continual self-commendatory remark by the voyageurs.

After a while, they came to a wooden bridge, built upon piles resting in
the stream. "This," said the schoolmaster, "is the _Pons sublicius_,
like that which Ancus Martius built over the Tiber. Shall we shoot it,
Corry, or shall we call a halt and proceed to fish?"

The dug-out bumped on the piles, and the navigators trembled, but
Wilkinson, bravely gathering his legs under him and rising to his knees
on the board, threw his arms round a pile, when, in spite of Coristine's
efforts, the craft slewed round and the stern got under the bridge ahead
of the bow.

"Hold on, Wilks," the lawyer cried; "another bump like that and the old
thing'll split in two. Now, then, we'll drop the paddles and slip her
along the bridge to the bank. There's a hole under that birch tree
there, and some fine young birches that will do for rods back of it.
Doesn't the birch make you feel like England, home and duty, Wilks?"

"The quotation, sir, is incorrect, as usual; it is England, home and
beauty."

"Well, that's a beauty of a birch, anyway."

They got ashore, and fastened the painter to a sapling on the bank,
because it was not long enough to go round a pile. Then they produced
their knives, and, proceeding to the place where the young birches grew,
cut down two famous rods, to which they attached lines with white and
green floats and small hooks wi