ng them. So after thinking over
another plan he changed his tactics entirely.

Though his wrists were tied, his fingers were comparatively free; he
could, for instance, grasp firmly with them anything that was not very
large. He had noticed that the end of the rope tethering the boat had
been tied to the bough of a young willow near the water's edge. He
resolved to break that bough, and then slowly work the boat along by
pulling at the grass, reeds, or anything on the bank. In a short time
he carried out the first part of his programme.

Compared with gnawing at the hard rope, the twisting of the supple
bough backwards and forwards, until he wrested it from the parent stem,
was but a light task. It was more difficult to work the boat along
against the stream. Yet by patience and pluck and perseverance--the
three "p's" that all young folks should seek to acquire--he managed to
succeed.

"Should that man come back to trouble me," he said, "he will find me
gone; that will be something. Still I do not quite see how I am to get
the things for the house, tied as I am to this boat."

Pluckily he pulled at the grass and reeds, and worked the boat along.
When he had gone some distance from the point where the man had
fastened the boat, he shouted again, and he continued to shout at
intervals. But no cry answered his own. There was no sound but the
lapping of the water against the boat or the murmur of the wind.

So some time passed. Alfy was getting very weary and hungry. There
seemed no chance of help coming to him, and the situation was the more
vexing, as he felt that his knife in his pocket, if he could but have
got it, would soon have made short work of the knots. But in the
circumstances the knife might have been left at the house, for all the
good it was to him.

At length he came to the place where the flood poured into the river.
"Hurrah!" he cried, "this does look like making progress. Now I will
try and get as near as I can to the house."

It was at times more difficult to make progress on the flood than on
the stream, for there was no decided bank such as edged the river; but
he took advantage where he could of anything on the brink of the water,
such as a hurdle or a bush, a stile or a hedge, and pluckily kept at
his work.

In the village, Mr. Daw was getting quite fidgety at Alfy's absence.

"What can have happened to the lad?" said he. "The boy would surely
not be so long in finding a boat