sy, let's be quick back."

"Has not the butcher come?" asked the old nurse.

"No; no tradesmen could cross over from the village, nor yet the
postman, and we expected a letter from mother and father. We are all
surrounded by water in the house, just like an island. 'The Island
House' Madge called it!"

"And Miss Madge, and Miss Edie, and Jane are quite well?"

"Yes, quite, dear Mansy. Only do be quick, please."

The old nurse bent over and put the packages into the tub.

"There!" she said, as it dipped, "see how that weighs it down."

"Only a bob down when the parcels fell in," Alfy cried merrily. "See,
it is all right now. You can't get across any other way," he added
decidedly.

"Well, I'll try it," she said slowly; "but I very much doubt----"

She did not finish the sentence, but carefully planting the bulging
umbrella in the water, she leaned on it, and then advanced one foot to
place in the tub. "Oh, I can't!" she cried, just as the foot was over
the side of the tub, and she hastily drew back.

"You _could_, Mansy dear," exclaimed Alfy. "You were just doing it
beautifully!"

"But didn't you see how the tub was going down, Master Alfy?"

"Oh, no, it wasn't; try again, there's a dear!"

So Mansy, persuaded by Alfy, whom she loved like her own son, and
spurred on also by the desire to reach the house, tried again. She
leaned on the umbrella, and slowly advanced her right foot as before,
but this time she plumped it down into the tub.

Down it bobbed, of course, under her weight. "Oh-h-h!" she cried. "I
shall drown you, Alfy!" and hastily she drew back again. "Me in a
tub!" she cried. "I can't!"

"It really is all right," said Alfy again. "It will take us both.
Why, these flat-bottomed things float in ever such a little water. Try
once more, Mansy dear, and then I can give you a kiss."

"I dessay you could, my bonnie baby, and I know you'd do anything to
help your old nurse. You're a real good boy; but go in that rockety
thing I couldn't!"

"Tisn't rickety, Mansy, when once you are inside. Look here," and he
jumped in it, and shook it from side to side. Of course his light
weight was nothing to speak of, and it sat like a cork on the water.

"You take over the parcels to your sisters, Alfy dear, and then they'll
have something to eat."

"No, I'm not going without you, Mansy!" he exclaimed decidedly, pulling
the tub in again by the rope quite close.

"Bless the boy! To think of