WROXHAM BROAD. 49 



" And how did you sleep last night? Wasn't it very 

 lonely ? " said his mother. 



The boys unanimously affirmed that it had been most 

 awfully jolly, and that they had been most comfortable. 



Whilst the party were embarking, Frank went to the village 

 carpenter's and got a stout leaping-pole with a block of wood 

 at the end, so that it might not sink into the mud when they 

 were jumping the ditches. He also obtained a pair of mud 

 boards to put on his feet when walking over soft ground. 

 These were pieces of wood a foot long by eighteen inches 

 wide, with rope loops to slip over the feet. He expected to 

 find them useful while bird-nesting on the marshes. 



They sailed at a good pace down the river, and then, while 

 Mary was asking where the Broad was, Frank put the helm 

 over, and they sailed through a narrow channel, on either 

 side of which the reeds were seven feet high, and while 

 the question was still on Mary's lips, they were gliding 

 over the fine expanse of water which is known as Wroxham 

 Broad. 



They had a very pleasant afternoon, and as the breeze was 

 steady and the yacht behaved herself very well, the two elder 

 ladies lost much of the nervousness with which they had 

 regarded the boys' expedition. Dick was much impressed 

 with the loveliness of the Broad. On the one side the woods 

 came down to the water's edge, and on the other the wide 

 marsh stretched away miles on miles, with its waving reed 

 beds, tracts of white cotton-grasses, and many-coloured marsh 

 grasses, which varied in sheen and tint as the wind waved them 

 or the cloud-shadows passed over them. Here and there a 

 gleam of white showed where the river or a broad lay, but for 

 the most part the whereabouts of water was only shown by the 

 brown sails of the wherries, or the snow-white sails of the 

 yachts, which glided and tacked about in a manner that seemed 

 most mysterious, seeing that there was no water visible for them 

 to float on. 



At one end of Wroxham' Broad is a labyrinth of dykes and 

 pools, between wooded islands and ferny banks. The boys took 

 the two girls in the punt through this charming maze, and they 

 pushed their way through the large floating leaves of the water- 

 lily, and the more pointed leaves of the arrowhead, gathering 

 the many-coloured flowers which nestled amid the luxuriant 



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