either throws them into the water, or cuts their face open. The best plan is to stand your ground, and be prepared to keep them off with the butt-end of a mast.

Of all experiences in connection with towing, the most exciting is being towed by girls. It is a sensation that nobody ought to miss. It takes three girls to tow always; two hold the rope, and the other one runs round and round and giggles. They generally begin by getting themselves tied up. They get the line round their legs, and have to sit down on the path and undo each other, and then they twist it round their necks, and are nearly strangled. They fix it straight, however, at last, and start off at a run, pulling the boat along at quite a dangerous pace. At the end of a hundred yards they are naturally breathless, and suddenly stop, and all sit down on the grass and laugh, and your boat drifts out to mid-stream and turns round, before you know what has happened, or can get hold of a scull. Then they stand up, and are surprised.

‘Oh look!’ they say; ‘he’s gone right out into the middle.’

They pull on pretty steadily for a bit, after this, and then it all at once occurs to one of them that she will pin up her frock, and they ease up for the purpose, and the boat runs aground.

You jump up and push it off, and you shout to them not to stop.

‘Yes. What’s the matter?’ they shout back.

‘Don’t stop,’ you roar.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Don’t stop—go on—go on!’

‘Go back, Emily, and see what it is they want,’ says one; and Emily comes back, and asks what it is.

‘What do you want?’ she says; ‘anything happened?’

‘No,’ you reply, ‘it’s all right; only go on, you know—don’t stop.’

‘Why not?’

‘Why, we can’t steer if you keep stopping. You must keep some way on the boat.’

‘Keep some what?’

‘Some way—you must keep the boat moving.’

‘Oh, all right, I’ll tell ’em. Are we doing it all right?’

‘Oh yes, very nicely indeed, only don’t stop.’

‘It doesn’t seem difficult at all. I thought it was so hard.’

‘Oh no, it’s simple enough. You want to keep on steady at it, that’s all.’

‘I see. Give me out my red shawl, it’s under the cushion.’

You find the shawl, and hand it out, and by this time another has come back and thinks she will have hers too, and they take Mary’s on chance, and Mary does not want it, so they bring it back and have a pocket-comb instead. It is about twenty minutes before they get off again, and, at the next corner, they see a cow, and you have to leave the boat to chivy the cow out of their way.