a boat, and were no more at
ease than if they had been afloat in a tub. Alec being stronger in the
arms than Curly, they went round and round for some time, as if in a
whirlpool, with a timeless and grotesque spluttering and sprawling. At
last they gave it up in weariness, and allowed the _Bonnie Annie_ to
float along the stream, taking care only to keep her off the rocks.
Past them went the banks--here steep and stony, but green with moss
where little trickling streams found their way into the channel; there
spreading into low alluvial shores, covered with lovely grass, starred
with daisies and buttercups, from which here and there rose a willow,
whose low boughs swept the water. A little while ago, they had skated
down its frozen surface, and had seen a snowy land shooting past them;
now with an unfelt gliding, they floated down, and the green meadows
dreamed away as if they would dream past them for ever.--Suddenly, as
they rounded the corner of a rock, a great roar of falling water burst
on their ears, and they started in dismay,

"The sluice is up!" cried Alec. "Tak' to yer oar, Curly."

Along this part of the bank, some twenty feet above them, ran a
mill-race, which a few yards lower down communicated by means of a
sluice with the river. This sluice was now open, for, from the late
rains, there was too much water; and the surplus rushed from the race
into the Glamour in a foaming cataract. Annie seeing that the boys were
uneasy, got very frightened, and, closing her eyes, sat motionless.
Louder and louder grew the tumult of the waters, till their sound
seemed to fall in a solid thunder on her brain. The boys tried hard to
row against the stream, but without avail. Slowly and surely it carried
them down into the very heart of the boiling fall; for on this side
alone was the channel deep enough for the boat, and the banks were too
steep and bare to afford any hold. At last, the boat drifting stern
foremost, a torrent of water struck Annie, and tumbled into the boat as
if it would beat out the bottom of it. Annie was tossed about in fierce
waters, and ceased to know anything. When she came to herself, she was
in an unknown bed, with the face of Mrs Forbes bending anxiously over
her. She would have risen, but Mrs Forbes told her to lie still, which
indeed Annie found much more pleasant.

As soon as they got under the fall the boat had filled and foundered.
Alec and Curly could swim like otters, and were out of the p