e 'Othere, the old
sea-captain,' in the book of verses which Una had brought with her; but on
account of the heat they changed it to a voyage up the Amazon and the
sources of the Nile. Even on the shaded water the air was hot and heavy
with drowsy scents, while outside, through breaks in the trees, the
sunshine burned the pasture like fire. The kingfisher was asleep on his
watching-branch, and the blackbirds scarcely took the trouble to dive into
the next bush. Dragon-flies wheeling and clashing were the only things at
work, except the moor-hens and a big Red Admiral who flapped down out of
the sunshine for a drink.

When they reached Otter Pool the _Golden Hind_ grounded comfortably on a
shallow, and they lay beneath a roof of close green, watching the water
trickle over the floodgates down the mossy brick chute from the
mill-stream to the brook. A big trout--the children knew him well--rolled
head and shoulders at some fly that sailed round the bend, while once in
just so often the brook rose a fraction of an inch against all the wet
pebbles, and they watched the slow draw and shiver of a breath of air
through the tree-tops. Then the little voices of the slipping water began
again.

'It's like the shadows talking, isn't it?' said Una. She had given up
trying to read. Dan lay over the bows, trailing his hands in the current.
They heard feet on the gravel-bar that runs half across the pool and saw
Sir Richard Dalyngridge standing over them.

'Was yours a dangerous voyage?' he asked, smiling.

'She bumped a lot, sir,' said Dan. 'There's hardly any water this summer.'

'Ah, the brook was deeper and wider when my children played at Danish
pirates. Are you pirate-folk?'

'Oh, no. We gave up being pirates years ago,' explained Una. 'We're nearly
always explorers now. Sailing round the world, you know.'

'Round?' said Sir Richard. He sat him in the comfortable crotch of the old
ash-root on the bank. 'How can it be round?'

'Wasn't it in your books?' Dan suggested. He had been doing geography at
his last lesson.

'I can neither write nor read,' he replied. 'Canst _thou_ read, child?'

'Yes,' said Dan, 'barring the very long words.'

'Wonderful! Read to me, that I may hear for myself.'

Dan flushed, but opened the book and began--gabbling a little--at 'The
Discoverer of the North Cape.'

'Othere, the old sea captain,
Who dwelt in Helgoland,
To Alfred, lover of truth,
Brought a snow-white walrus tooth,