our legs and feet when we put on our stockings for dinner, and
slowly and stately the good ship moved away from shore, riding on
the waves as though they were her native element.

We kept her going with the hop-poles, and we kept her steady in the
same way, but we could not always keep her steady enough, and we
could not always keep her in the wind's eye. That is to say, she
went where we did not want, and once she bumped her corner against
the barn wall, and all the crew had to sit down suddenly to avoid
falling overboard into a watery grave. Of course then the waves
swept her decks, and when we got up again we said that we should
have to change completely before tea.

But we pressed on undaunted, and at last our saucy craft came into
port, under the dairy window and there was the milk-pan, for whose
sake we had endured such hardships and privations, standing up on
its edge quite quietly.

The girls did not wait for orders from the captain, as they ought
to have done; but they cried out, 'Oh, here it is!' and then both
reached out to get it. Anyone who has pursued a naval career will
see that of course the raft capsized. For a moment it felt like
standing on the roof of the house, and the next moment the ship
stood up on end and shot the whole crew into the dark waters.

We boys can swim all right. Oswald has swum three times across the
Ladywell Swimming Baths at the shallow end, and Dicky is nearly as
good; but just then we did not think of this; though, of course, if
the water had been deep we should have.