d told the boatman to push off, while Everard,
with a face like a thundercloud, joined the younger children.

Up the narrow little river the light boats pushed, under an overhanging
archway of papyrus reeds, so that they seemed as if penetrating through
a green jungle. The boatmen began to sing Sicilian folk-songs, and
Vittore and Rosalia and Tito and some of the others joined in. To
everyone except Everard the excursion was delightful, but he,
considering himself treated with scant politeness, sat sulking in
Vittore's boat, and would scarcely speak to Aimee, who made a really
heroic effort to amuse him.

Proserpine's fountain, where after half an hour's rowing the boatmen
took them, was a clear deep pool reflecting the blue of the sky, and
encircled with papyrus, donax reeds, and beautiful irises. It seemed a
fit setting for the legend of antiquity, and a fertile imagination could
almost conjure up a vision of Pluto, with his chariot and black horses,
carrying off the lovely nymph from her meadows of flowers to his gloomy
realm of darkness. On the way back the second boat made a halt to cut
some pieces of papyrus reed, and Dulcie called out in much excitement to
the occupants of the other "barcas."

"Lilias! Everard! We're cutting some papyrus, and Douglas is going to
show me how to make it into parchment like the ancient Egyptians used to
write on. Won't it be gorgeous? Don't you want some too?"

"Rather!" replied Lilias, appealing to Mr. Stacey, who promptly pulled
out his penknife, and began to hack away at a stout stem on her behalf.

The lengths of papyrus which they bore off with them somewhat resembled
thick pieces of rhubarb, and how these were ever going to be turned into
writing materials was a puzzle to Dulcie, though Douglas assured her
airily that he knew all about it. The elders of the party were glad to
get the lively youngsters safely on dry land again.

"I thought Rosalia was going to turn into a water nymph," said Lilias,
comparing notes afterwards with Dulcie. "She leaned over in the most
dangerous manner, and so did Tito. If the boats hadn't been so broad,
they would have capsized."

"Then Pluto would have bagged the whole lot of us! More than he quite
bargained for, perhaps!" laughed Dulcie.

The making of the parchment was a matter of great interest to the
Ingletons. With Douglas as an instructor, they all set to work on its
manufacture. Taking ten inch lengths of the papyrus reeds, they c