

TAKEN IN TOW. 133 



crew consented to tow them to Yarmouth, Their sails were 

 accordingly lowered, and a rope was made fast to the wherry ; 

 and in a few minutes' time they were being pulled along at a 

 good pace by their great, black, ugly friend. 



" Now we can enjoy our otium cum dignitate" said Dick, 

 throwing himself at full length on the roof of the cabin with 

 the furled mainsail as a pillow ; " and however light the breeze 

 is to-morrow, it will take us home in time ; so I shall write a note 

 home and post it at Yarmouth." 



Between the waving reed-beds, through the long miles of 

 marsh, acres of which were white with the silky globes of the 

 cotton-grasses, by whirling wind-mills and groups of red and 

 white cattle browsing on the reclaimed marshes, past sailing 

 wherries that surged along before the light breeze with a lazy, 

 motion, past white-sailed yachts with gay-coloured pennants at 

 their mast-heads and laughter-loving pleasure parties on board, 

 underneath a bright blue sky streaked with filmy cloudlets and 

 dotted with uprising larks, over a stream that murmured and 

 rippled with a summer gladness, they clove their steady way. 

 With every nerve instinct with healthy life, and hearts which 

 had the great gift of understanding and appreciating the true 

 and the beautiful around them, what wonder if they felt as 

 happy as they could wish to feel, and were full of contentment 

 with the pleasant time it was their lot to pass. 



They crossed Breydon Water under widely different circum- 

 stances to those in which they first crossed it. Then it was 

 wild and stormy ; now it was fair and placid. 



They reached Yarmouth about five, and as the wind still 

 held they turned up the Bure with the flowing tide, and sailed 

 on and on in that quiet peaceful evening, with lessening speed 

 as the wind fell, until at last they barely crept through the 

 water. Even when there was not a breath of air perceptible 

 to the upheld hand, and the surface of the river was as smooth 

 as glass, and the reeds were silent from their whispering, yet a 

 magic wind seemed to fill their large sails, and still they crept 

 on with a dream-like motion. At last that motion ceased, but 

 then they were so close to Acle bridge that they set to work and 

 poled the yacht along with the quants, and in another half hour 

 they were moored by the Staithe. 



It was then half-past nine o'clock, but still very light ; and 

 there was a whiteness in the sky to the north-east, which told 



