sailing one day, on this very pond. The water was pretty low
that year, and we got over into a cove on the north side, where we
seldom went, and didn't know the ground thoroughly. Indeed, in very low
water, one is apt to find that one doesn't know any ground thoroughly.
New ledges and rocks are constantly cropping out--as you shall hear.
Well, we were sailing along in fine style, before a fair wind, when
suddenly--we ran aground."

"On the shore?" asked the Colonel.

"No; on a rock. It was getting dark, and we could not see very well, but
I could see a nose of rock, and it looked like the end of a ledge. 'I'll
get out and shove her off!' said I. I sounded with an oar, and found the
water barely ankle-deep on the ledge. So I took off my shoes and
stockings, rolled up my trousers a little, and stepped in--up to my
neck!"

"Ha! ha!" roared the Colonel. "Ho! ho! that was sport. I wish I had seen
you."

"Wait a moment!" said the Chief. "The picture is not ready for
exhibition yet. When Will had got through laughing at me, he went to
work--I found I could not stir the boat alone--he went to work and got
ready. Stripped to the skin--he had on a new suit, and was something of
a dandy in those days--stepped carefully overboard--and landed in water
three inches deep."

"Merryweather, you are making this up!"

"Indeed I am not, my dear sir. There we stood, I up to my chin, he with
his toes under water, and laughed till we were so weak that we had to go
ashore and sit down before we had strength to push that boat off. There
is my Roland for your Oliver, Colonel. And now, Miranda, I think we are
ready for your game. Come down, boys!"

The boys came scrambling down, still laughing over the stories, and soon
all were seated on the carpet of dry, fragrant pine-needles. The girls
had found some oak-leaves ("It is my belief," said Mr. Merryweather,
"that if Bell went to a picnic in a coal-mine or on a sand-bank, she
would still manage to find oak-leaves somewhere!"), and were busily
twining garlands for the heads of the company.

"Are we all ready?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "Well! my game--a very
simple one--is called _Vocabulary_. It came from my reading the other
day an admirable little book written by a wise professor, in which he
deplores the poverty of our vocabularies, and makes a suggestion for our
enlarging them. He advises us to add two or three words to our list
every week. The first time we use a new word, he says, i