chill; and we had scarcely a dry stitch between the pair of us. Nay, now
we found ourselves near the end of the Allee Verte, and on the very
threshold of Brussels, we were confronted by a serious difficulty. The
shores were closely lined by canal boats waiting their turn at the lock.
Nowhere was there any convenient landing-place; nowhere so much as a
stable-yard to leave the canoes in for the night. We scrambled ashore
and entered an _estaminet_ where some sorry fellows were drinking with
the landlord. The landlord was pretty round with us; he knew of no
coach-house or stable-yard, nothing of the sort; and seeing we had come
with no mind to drink, he did not conceal his impatience to be rid of
us. One of the sorry fellows came to the rescue. Somewhere in the corner
of the basin there was a slip, he informed us, and something else
besides, not very clearly defined by him, but hopefully construed by his
hearers.

Sure enough there was the slip in the corner of the basin, and at the
top of it two nice-looking lads in boating clothes. The _Arethusa_
addressed himself to these. One of them said there would be no
difficulty about a night's lodging for our boats; and the other, taking
a cigarette from his lips, inquired if they were made by Searle and Son.
The name was quite an introduction. Half a dozen other young men came
out of a boat-house bearing the superscription ROYAL SPORT NAUTIQUE, and
joined in the talk. They were all very polite, voluble, and
enthusiastic; and their discourse was interlarded with English boating
terms, and the names of English boat-builders and English clubs. I do
not know, to my shame, any spot in my native land where I should have
been so warmly received by the same number of people. We were English
boating-men, and the Belgian boating-men fell upon our necks. I wonder
if French Huguenots were as cordially greeted by English Protestants
when they came across the Channel out of great tribulation. But, after
all, what religion knits people so closely as a common sport?

The canoes were carried into the boat-house; they were washed down for
us by the Club servants, the sails were hung out to dry, and everything
made as snug and tidy as a picture. And in the meanwhile we were led
upstairs by our new-found brethren, for so more than one of them stated
the relationship, and made free of their lavatory. This one lent us
soap, that one a towel, a third and fourth helped us to undo our bags.
And all th