Felix was so disgusted at this failure that he would not listen to
anything Oliver could suggest. He walked back to the spot where he had
worked so many weeks, and sat down with his face turned from the pool.
It was not so much the actual circumstance which depressed him, as the
long train of untoward incidents which had preceded it for years past.
These seemed to have accumulated, till now this comparatively little
annoyance was like the last straw.

Oliver followed him, and said that the defect could be remedied by
placing ballast on the more buoyant side of the canoe to bring it down
to the level of the other; or, perhaps, if some more wood were cut away
on the heavier side, that it would cause it to rise. He offered to do
the work himself, but Felix, in his gloomy mood, would not answer him.
Oliver returned to the pool, and getting into the canoe, poled it up and
down the stream. It answered perfectly, and could be easily managed; the
defect was more apparent than real, for when a person sat in the canoe,
his weight seemed to bring it nearly level.

It was only when empty that it canted to one side. He came back again to
Felix, and pointed this out to him. The attempt was useless; the boat
might answer the purpose perfectly well, but it was not the boat Felix
had intended it to be. It did not come up to his ideal.

Oliver was now somewhat annoyed at Felix's sullen silence, so he drew
the canoe partly on shore, to prevent it from floating away, and then
left him to himself.

Nothing more was said about it for a day or two. Felix did not go near
the spot where he had worked so hard and so long, but on the Saturday
Philip came home as usual, and, as there was now no secret about the