us under the
dairy window we never even thought of.

So we four elder ones got on the raft very carefully; and even then,
every time we moved the water swished up over the raft and hid our feet.
But I must say it was a jolly decent raft.

Dicky was captain, because it was his adventure. We had hop-poles from
the hop-garden beyond the orchard to punt with. We made the girls stand
together in the middle and hold on to each other to keep steady. Then we
christened our gallant vessel. We called it the _Richard_, after Dicky,
and also after the splendid admiral who used to eat wine-glasses and
died after the Battle of the _Revenge_ in Tennyson's poetry.

Then those on shore waved a fond adieu as well as they could with the
dampness of their handkerchiefs, which we had had to use to dry our legs
and feet when we put on our stockings for dinner, and slowly and stately
the good ship moved away from shore, riding on the waves as though they
were her native element.

We kept her going with the hop-poles, and we kept her steady in the same
way, but we could not always keep her steady enough, and we could not
always keep her in the wind's eye. That is to say, she went where we did
not want, and once she bumped her corner against the barn wall, and all
the crew had to sit down suddenly to avoid falling overboard into a
watery grave. Of course then the waves swept her decks, and when we got
up again we said that we should have to change completely before tea.

But we pressed on undaunted, and at last our saucy craft came into port
under the dairy window, and there was the milk-pan, for whose sake we
had endured such hardships and privations, standing up on its edge quite
quietly.

The girls did not wait for orders from the captain, as they ought to
have done; but they cried out, "Oh, here it is!" and then both reached
out to get it. Any one who has pursued a naval career will see that of
course the raft capsized. For a moment it felt like standing on the roof
of the house, and the next moment the ship stood up on end and shot the
whole crew into the dark waters.

We boys can swim all right. Oswald has swum three times across the
Ladywell Swimming Baths at the shallow end, and Dicky is nearly as good;
but just then we did not think of this; though, of course, if the water
had been deep we should have.

As soon as Oswald could get the muddy water out of his eyes he opened
them on a horrid scene.

Dicky was standing up to his