k of Mrs. Johnson's red-faced
father crossing the sea in a gig like the one Mr. Bustard used to go
his professional "rounds" in. And when Fred spoke of his "pulling
himself" I was yet more bewildered by the unavoidable conclusion that
they had no horse on board, and that the gallant and ever-ready
captain went himself between the shafts. The wonder of his getting to
Musk Island in that fashion was, however, eclipsed by the wonders he
found when he did get there. Musk-hedges and bowers ten feet high,
with flowers as large as bindweed blossoms, and ladies with pale gold
hair all dressed in straw-coloured satin, and with such lovely faces
that the captain vowed that no power on earth should move him till he
had learned enough of the language to propose the health of the Musk
Island beauties in a suitable speech after dinner. "And there he would
have lived and died, I believe," Fred would say, "if that first mate,
who saved his life before, had not rescued him by main force, and
taken him back to his ship."

I am reminded of this story when I think of the island in Linnet Lake,
for we were so deeply charmed by it that we very nearly broke our
voyage, as the captain broke his, to settle on it.

Mr. Rowe called the lake Linnet Flash. Wherever the canal seemed to
spread out, and then go on again narrow and like a river, the
barge-master called these lakes "flashes" of the canal. There is no
other flash on that canal so large or so beautiful as Linnet Lake, and
in the middle of the lake lies the island.

It was about three o'clock, the hottest part of a summer's day, and
Fred and I, rather faint with the heat, were sitting on a coil of rope
holding a clean sheet, which Mr. Rowe had brought up from the cabin to
protect our heads and backs from sunstroke. We had refused to take
shelter below, and sat watching the fields and hedges, which seemed to
palpitate in the heat as they went giddily by, and Mr. Rowe, who stood
quite steady, conversing coolly with the driver. The driver had been
on board for the last hour, the way being clear, and the old horse
quite able to take care of itself and us, and he and the barge-master
had pocket-handkerchiefs under their hats like the sou'-wester flaps
of the captain's sea-friends. Fred had dropped his end of the sheet
to fall asleep, and I was protecting us both, when the driver bawled
some directions to the horse in their common language, and the
barge-master said, "Here's a bit of shade fo