A TEALS NEST. HARD AND FAST. 39 



" Tht is a teal," said Frank, " we shall find her nest here, 

 so look carefully." 



They jumped into the shallow water, having first taken off 

 their shoes and stockings, and began to hunt about for nests. 

 They speedily found several coots' and water-hens' nests, and 

 also a dab-chick's ; but they wanted none of these, and con- 

 tinued their search for the teal's nest. At last 



" Here it is," said Dick delightedly, and sure enough there 

 the nest was, in a small bush which grew in the very centre of 

 the rond, where the soil was pretty firm. The nest was large 

 and thickly lined with feathers, and it contained twelve cream- 

 coloured eggs. They took six of them, and then, satisfied with 

 their spoil, they went back to their yacht, and tried to push her 

 off again. But this was no easy task. They pushed and 

 pushed, until they were exhausted, and the only effect their 

 pushing seemed to have was to push their own legs deeper into 

 the mud. The yacht refused to be moved. 



" Well, this is a pretty go, to be wrecked at the very beginning 

 of our cruise ! We have run her almost high and dry. How 

 they will laugh at us at home ! " said Jimmy. 



" They sha'n't have the chance of doing that. We will get 

 her off somehow or other. We ought to have gone to leeward 

 of the rond, and run her up in the wind's eye into it, and then 

 we could have backed her off with the sails," said Frank. 



" Live and learn," said Dick. " I vote we strip and go over- 

 board again and try to lift her off. We can get the oars from 

 the boat, and use them as levers." 



This was undoubtedly the best thing to do, and although the 

 water was not over warm, they took off their clothes and worked 

 and pushed away, until they made the mud around the yacht as 

 soft as a pudding, and themselves as black as negroes. Then 

 the yacht moved a little, and putting forth all their strength 

 they shoved her back into deeper water. Not waiting to dress 

 themselves, they ran the sails up and steered away for the 

 Kendal Dyke at the south-east end of the Broad. They meant 

 to stay at the mouth of the Broad to bathe and dress. There 

 was no one to see them, so it did not matter. As they neared 

 the mouth of the dyke, to their great dismay a yacht with 

 several people on board came out of it The people stared in 

 blank astonishment at the strange double-bodied yacht and her 

 still stranger crew. Jimmy and Dick dived at once into the 



