Kennebunk River with an Indian to paddle, and after watching the
manoeuvres of the paddlers on the Thames and the antics of those
wretched little boats, I made the solemn promise with myself never to
trust any one less skilled than an Indian again. But Jimmie, while he is
not more conceited than most people, is what you might call confident,
and he would have been all right in this instance, if he had noticed
that a race had just been rowed and that the swell from the racers was
just rippling over the boom and creeping gently toward the house-boat.
The canoe was still at the house-boat steps. They were both seated
comfortably and just about to paddle away when a swell came alongside
and tilted the canoe in such a succession of little unexpected rolls
that our two friends, in their anxiety to hold on to something which
was not there to hold on to, overbalanced, and the canoe shipped enough
water to submerge their legs entirely, giving them a nice cold hip bath.

Mrs. Jimmie screamed, and we all rushed down and fished her out of the
boat dripping like a mermaid and thoroughly chilled. Bee took her in to
warm her with a brandy and to hurry her into dry clothes, while I
remained to see what I could do for Jimmie, who was very wet, very mad,
and very uncommunicative.

"What a pity," I remarked, pleasantly, "that you are so thin. Shall I
come down and hold the boat still while you get out? Wet flannel has
such a clinging effect."

Jimmie is a good deal of a gentleman, so he made no reply. I was just
turning away, resolving in a Christian spirit to order him a hot Scotch,
when I heard a splash and a remark which was full of exclamation points,
asterisks, and other things, and looking down I saw the canoe bottom
upwards, with Jimmie clinging to it indignantly blowing a large quantity