ly off we ventured to peep out a little, and stretch
our cramped limbs. There was no one on board but the barge-master,
and he was at the other end of the vessel, smoking and minding his
rudder. The driver was walking on the towing-path by the old grey
horse. The motion of the boat was so smooth that we seemed to be lying
still whilst villages and orchards and green banks and osier-beds went
slowly by, as though the world were coming to show itself to us,
instead of our going out to see the world.

When we passed the town we felt some anxiety for fear we should be
stopped; but there was no one on the bank, and though the towers of S.
Philip and S. James appeared again and again in lessening size as we
looked back, there came at last a bend in the canal, when a high bank
of gorse shut out the distance, and we saw them no more.

In about an hour, having had no breakfast, we began to speak seriously
of the pie. (I had observed Fred breaking little corners from the
crust with an absent air more than once.) Thinking of the first
subdivision under the word Hardships in my handbook, I said, "I'm
afraid we ought to wait till we are _worse hungry_."

But Fred said, "Oh no!" And that out adventure-seeking it was quite
impossible to save and plan and divide your meals exactly, as you
could never tell what might turn up. The captain always said, "Take
good luck and bad luck and pot-luck as they come!" So Fred assured me,
and we resolved to abide by the captain's rule.

"We may have to weigh out our food with a bullet, like Admiral Bligh,
next week," said Fred.

"So we may," said I. And the thought must have given an extra relish
to the beefsteak and hard-boiled eggs, for I never tasted anything so
good.

Whether the smell of the pie went aft, or whether something else made
the barge-master turn round and come forward, I do not know; but when
we were encumbered with open clasp-knives, and full mouths, we saw him
bearing down upon us, and in a hasty movement of retreat I lost my
balance, and went backward with a crash upon a tub of potatoes.

The noise this made was not the worst part of the business. I was
tightly wedged amongst the odds and ends, and the money-bag being
sharply crushed against the match-box, which was by this time well
warmed, the matches exploded in a body, and whilst I was putting as
heroic a face as I could on the pain I was enduring in my right
funny-bone, Fred cried, "Your jacket's smoking. You're on f