ere now, and would probably be lying in wait for us near the
landing-place. There was no other spot admitting of debarcation on the
home side; if we got out on the other, and made for the bridge, we
should certainly be seen and cut off. Then it was that I blessed my
stars that our elder brother was with us that day. He might be little
good at pretending, but in grappling with the stern facts of life he had
no equal. Enjoining silence, he waited till we were but a little way
from the fated landing-place, and then brought us in to the opposite
bank. We scrambled out noiselessly and--the gathering darkness favouring
us--crouched behind a willow, while Edward pushed off the empty boat
with his foot. The old Argo, borne down by the gentle current, slid and
grazed along the rushy bank; and when she came opposite the suspected
ambush, a stream of imprecation told us that our precaution had not been
wasted. We wondered, as we listened, where Farmer Larkin, who was
bucolically bred and reared, had acquired such range and wealth of
vocabulary. Fully realising at last that his boat was derelict,
abandoned, at the mercy of wind and wave--as well as out of his
reach--he strode away to the bridge, about a quarter of a mile further
down; and as soon as we heard his boots clumping on the planks we nipped
out, recovered the craft, pulled across, and made the faithful vessel
fast to her proper moorings. Edward was anxious to wait and exchange
courtesies and compliments with the disappointed farmer, when he should
confront us on the opposite bank; but wiser counsels prevailed. It was
possible that the piracy was not yet laid at our particular door:
Ulysses, I reminded him, had reason to regret a similar act of bravado,
and--were he here--would certainly advise a timely retreat. Edward held
but a low opinion of me as a counsellor; but he had a very solid respect
for Ulysses.

[Illustration]

THE ROMAN ROAD

ALL the roads of our neighbourhood were cheerful and friendly, having
each of them pleasant qualities of their own; but this one seemed
different from the others in its masterful suggestion of a serious
purpose, speeding you along with a strange uplifting of the heart. The
others tempted chiefly with their treasures of hedge and ditch; the rapt
surprise of the first lords-and-ladies, the rustle of a field-mouse, the
splash of a frog; while cool noses of brother-beasts were pushed at you
through gate or gap. A loiterer you ha