on the side of the birds, while Philip, also
alarmed, gave a few strong strokes, and placed them beyond further
peril.

"Emily," he said, "how could you be so stupid? Don't you know that you
must always sit still in a boat?"

"Yes," she answered, half crying; "but you frightened me so about the
swans."

"Girls never can take a bit of fun. And if Juliet had not leaned the
other way so as to balance you, we might all have been in the water,
and the swans would have got you, and you might never have seen
Littlebourne Eyot again."

At this Emily cried outright.

Juliet asked Philip what he meant by an eyot. He told her that an
island in the Thames is called an _eyot_ or _ait_; and he also said
that she had more sense than most girls, and if she liked he would
teach her how to row, which some women can do almost as well as men.

"I should think I could do it without being taught," said Juliet.

"No, you could not. You would catch crabs, and you would feather in
the air, and you would run into the banks, and go aground on the
shallows, and be carried over the weirs."

"I should not care," said Juliet. "I could eat the crabs, and make a
pillow of the feathers; I am not afraid."

"You have a good deal of pluck for a girl," said Philip; "but don't
you get playing with boats, or you will come to grief."

"I sha'n't ask _your_ leave," said Juliet.

"I sha'n't give it," replied Philip with a rough laugh.

And Juliet spoke no more, but knitted her brows fiercely.

When the children landed at the lock, and told of the adventure with
the swans, Mrs. Rowles was profuse with praise of Juliet's presence of
mind. In fact she was almost too profuse, and wishing to encourage her
niece ran the risk of making her conceited. Juliet's brows grew
smooth, her eyes brightened, her head rose higher.

"Oh, well," she said aside to Emily, "it is not so difficult to manage
a boat if you have your wits about you. When people give way and lose
their wits, then it is dangerous, if you like."

Which remarks seemed to Emily extremely sensible, but to Philip, who
overheard them, extremely foolish.

During the next week Mrs. Rowles felt that Juliet was improving in
temper and conduct; praise was doing the child good she thought. She
did not know that it was also doing her harm.

One day a letter and a parcel came for Juliet. The letter was from her
mother, full of good news. Mr. Mitchell had gone to work again; she
had herself made a su