for the animals we had left at the house.

At last, after much pulling and tugging, we got the anchor up and
undid a lot of mooring-ropes. Then the Curlew began to move
gently down the river with the out-running tide, while the people
on the wall cheered and waved their handkerchiefs.

We bumped into one or two other boats getting out into the
stream; and at one sharp bend in the river we got stuck on a mud
bank for a few minutes. But though the people on the shore seemed
to get very excited at these things, the Doctor did not appear to
be disturbed by them in the least.

"These little accidents will happen in the most carefully
regulated voyages," he said as he leaned over the side and fished
for his boots which had got stuck in the mud while we were
pushing off. "Sailing is much easier when you get out into the
open sea. There aren't so many silly things to bump into."

For me indeed it was a great and wonderful feeling, that getting
out into the open sea, when at length we passed the little
lighthouse at the mouth of the river and found ourselves free of
the land. It was all so new and different: just the sky above
you and sea below. This ship, which was to be our house and our
street, our home and our garden, for so many days to come, seemed
so tiny in all this wide water--so tiny and yet so snug,
sufficient, safe.

I looked around me and took in a deep breath. The Doctor was at
the wheel steering the boat which was now leaping and plunging