oots.

But we had to bear the boots because it was so brambly.

It was Oswald who showed the others how flat it would be to go home the
same way we came; and he pointed out the telegraph wires in the distance
and said:

"There must be a road there, let's make for it," which was quite a
simple and ordinary thing to say, and he does not ask for any credit for
it.

So we sloshed along, scratching our legs with the brambles, and the
water squelched in our boots, and Alice's blue muslin frock was torn
all over in these criss-cross tears which are considered so hard to
darn.

We did not follow the stream any more. It was only a trickle now, so we
knew we had tracked it to its source. And we got hotter and hotter and
hotter, and the dews of agony stood in beads on our brows and rolled
down our noses and off our chins. And the flies buzzed and the gnats
stung, and Oswald bravely sought to keep up Dicky's courage, when he
tripped on a snag and came down on a bramble-bush, by saying:

"_You_ see it _is_ the source of the Nile we've discovered. What price
north poles now?"

Alice said, "Ah, but think of ices! I expect Oswald wishes it _had_ been
the pole, anyway--"

Oswald is naturally the leader, especially when following up what is his
own idea, but he knows that leaders have other duties besides just
leading. One is to assist weak or wounded members of the expedition,
whether polar or equatorish.

So the others had got a bit ahead through Oswald lending the tottering
Denny a hand over the rough places. Denny's feet hurt him, because when
he was a beaver his stockings had dropped out of his pocket, and boots
without stockings are not a bed of luxuriousness. And he is often
unlucky with his feet.

Presently we came to a pond, and Denny said:

"Let's paddle."

Oswald likes Denny to have ideas; he knows it is healthy for the boy,
and generally he backs him up, but just now it was getting late and the
others were ahead, so he said:

"Oh, rot! come on."

Generally the Dentist would have; but even worms will turn if they are
hot enough, and if their feet are hurting them.

"I don't care, I shall!" he said.

Oswald overlooked the mutiny and did not say who was leader. He just
said:

"Well, don't be all day about it," for he is a kind-hearted boy and can
make allowances.

So Denny took off his boots and went into the pool.

"Oh, it's ripping!" he said. "You ought to come in."

"It looks beastly muddy," said