Almighty God, and afterward, horribile dictu, pitchforks for
little Margaret, and a vivid incandescent state to be
maintained through eternity at vast cost of pit-coal to a
gentleman who carried over his arm, so as not to step on it, a
long snaky tail with a point like a harpoon's.

Meanwhile, Aladdin made sundry attempts to get the boat
ashore, and failed signally. The current was as saucy as
strong. Now it swept them into the very shade of the trees,
and as hope rose hot in the boy's heart and he began to stab
the water with the oars, sent them skipping for the midriver.
Occasionally a fish jumped to show how easy it was, and high
overhead an eagle passed statelily in the wake of a cloud.
After the eagle came a V of geese flying south, moving through
the treacherous currents and whirlpools of the upper air as
steadily and directly as a train upon its track. It seemed as
if nature had conspired with her children to demonstrate to
Margaret and Aladdin the facility of precise locomotion. The
narrow deeps of the river ended where the shore rolled into a
high knob of trees; above this it spread over the lower land
into a great, shallow, swiftly currented lake, having in its
midst a long turtlebacked island of dense woods and abrupt
shores. Two currents met off the knob and formed in the
direction of the island a long curve of spitting white.
Aladdin rowed with great fervor.

"Do it if you can, 'Laddin," said the little girl.

It seemed for one moment as if success were about to crown the
boy's effort, for he brought the boat to an exciting nearness