t the philosophy of our galley-slaves failed to
sustain them in their arduous efforts. They began well. The _Sarah_
led the way, the _Firefly_ following close in our wake. As long as the
friendly emulation between the two teams endured, we made fair progress.
But when it was discovered that the _Firefly_ had meanly hitched itself
on to the stern of the _Sarah_, and was permitting our four "paupers" to
pull the whole cavalcade, a difference of opinion arose. The _Firefly_
tugs, having nothing to do, amused themselves by peppering the
inoffensive crew of the _Sarah_ with pebbles from the bank; while the
outraged pullers of the _Sarah_, finding themselves tricked, struck work
altogether, and alter pulling our head round into a bed of tall
bulrushes, cast off the yoke and went for their fellow-"paupers." To
add to the general confusion, a real barge, towed by a real horse, came
down to meet us, threatening with its rope to decapitate the whole of
our party, and, whether we liked it or not, to drag us back to Low
Heath.

In the midst of all this trouble, I, as president, was loudly and
angrily appealed to to "look out" and "make them shut up," and "port the
helm, you lout," as if it was all my fault! I tried to explain that it
wasn't, but nobody would trouble to listen to me. How we avoided the
peril of the barge I really cannot tell. It lumbered past us in a very
bad temper, deluging us as it did so with the splashing from its
suddenly slackened rope, and indulging in remarks on things in general,
and schoolboys in particular, which were not pleasant to listen to, and
quite impossible to repeat.

However, as has been truly said, a common danger is often a common
blessing. And it turned out so in the present case. The mutinous
"paupers" brought their arguments on the bank to a close; and it was
decided for the rest of the way to attach the _Firefly_ officially to
the _Sarah_, and allow the seven tugs to pull the lot. They were quite
sufficiently alive to their own interests to see each pulled his fair
share; and the progress we made, although not racing speed, was,
compared at any rate with our bad quarter of an hour in the bulrushes,
satisfactory.

No further adventure happened till Langrish pointed to a wooded hill a
quarter of a mile further up stream, and said--

"That's Camp Hill. Jump in, you chaps, and row."

Whereupon the tugs, glad to be relieved, came on board, the two boats
cast loose, and the oa