t think they need take such great precautions. Mansy,
however, was rather fidgety about it.

"If the arrow did get into your eyes, you know, Master Alfy, I should
never forgive myself!" she said.

"But I should like to peep and see how Madge does it, you know," argued
Alfy.

"Now, I'm going to shoot," screamed Madge. She shot; and the arrow
fell midway between the house and the boat.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the boy outright "To think of making all that
fuss for nothing." Then he cried aloud, "Pull the arrow back quick,
Madge, and raise the bow higher when you shoot again; draw the
bowstring back as far as you can."

"And tie some more string to the kite line if it is not long enough,"
cried Mansy.

So with much laughter from the girls they pulled the arrow back from
the water by the string attached to it and tried again. They were not
expert archers, and failed once more--failed indeed several times. But
at last the arrow fell quite near the tub, and Alfy called out to his
sisters not to draw it back as it floated closer, and then with the
help of the handle of Mansy's bulgy umbrella he pulled it in and of
course the kite string with it.

This string was of great length. Alfy was fond of kite flying, and by
adding together long pieces of string he had acquired a tether of
considerable extent. To lengthen it still more, however, the girls had
managed to find some more string, and so it came about that
communication was established between the inhabitants of the house and
the watchers in the tub.

"That thin string will never pull us along," said Mansy doubtfully.
"It'll break!"

"Not if we help, I hope," exclaimed Alfy cheerfully. "We must paddle
our hardest, so the strain on the line won't be so great."

"Don't pull yet," he cried; "not till I tell you, Edie." Then he cut
the tub free from the laburnum, and, pushing the umbrella hard against
the trunk of the tree, gave the tub a vigorous push in the direction of
the house; and while it was floating thither, he called out to the
girls to pull the string lightly, and commenced to paddle at the same
time. Mansy also endeavoured to help with her inseparable umbrella,
and so now all of them were endeavouring to persuade the heavily laden
and clumsy craft to float against the flood to the house.

It was a tiresome task. The young navigator was obliged to go very
slowly, and to constantly ask his sisters not to pull hard, lest the
string should break.