least for such adventurers as
those who expected to use it. The rest of the company were set to
digging at the sandy ridge which banked the lake. All sorts of
implements were used, drinking cups, table pans, shovels extemporized
from splinters, stalks and chips picked from driftwood on the shore.
Indeed, the Brownies had been trained to turn a hand to such duty
without use of spades, shovels, picks or other trenching tools.

By the time the raft was ready, a cut had been made through the sand
almost to the verge of the lake, and the water had already begun to
trickle over the top. Then the final order was given, and all the
Brownies fell to with zeal, and removed the remaining sandy barrier.
Soon a breach was made in the shore through which the lake water began
to pour. The spirits of the Brownies rose with the rising flood, and
when at last enough water had entered the channel to float the raft,
they let it swing out into the stream, and were afloat upon the swift
running current.

Their purpose was now made plain. They intended to drown out the Pixie
pickets, overflood and override the barricade, and get into the heart of
the Pixie camp. But there were some difficulties in the way that these
reckless spirits had not considered. The water was as frisky as
themselves, and would not confine itself to the course in which they had
expected it to run, but turned hither and thither, crawling among clumps
and tufts of weeds, grass and bushes, whose tops presently appeared
above the surface of the current, and lay in the way of the raft as it
floated down stream.

"Look out there in front!" cried the leader but before the raft could be
pushed away it bumped against a bush. Several Brownies were tossed into
the stream, and were pulled up with difficulty. Now the raft was off
again, and its crew, a little more careful, managed to avoid the snags
that threatened them in front.

[Illustration: FIG. 64.--Tetragnatha's Mimicry of a Green Twig.]

Soon the cry arose: "Look out on the right!" Too late again, for the
raft was caught in an eddy and driven among the bushes on the margin of
the little torrent. Some of the crew clambered upon the bushes others
plunged into the stream, and by dint of pushing and pulling, and many
hearty but subdued calls, and with much laughter, the vessel was
released from the bushes and pushed again into the current. At this
moment Esslade saw the form of a Pixie upon an overhanging bush. He lay
alon