56 CAROLINE.

 

Boat adrift. Fear of going over the dam. The landing.

 

“There is your painter. Now you must take care of
yourselves.”

As he said this, he put down his helm and the sail-boat
swept round in a grand circle toward the other side of
the pond, leaving Caroline and her party in their boat to
drift wherever the current might carry them. There was
not much current, it is true, though there was a gentle
motion apparent on the surface of the water, tending to-
ward the dam.

“ 'Take care,
the dam.”

“ No,” said Caroline, “ the water is not deep enough on
the dam to carry us over, even if we go down to it.”

However, notwithstanding this assurance, Caroline did
not seem inclined to run the risk of being carried over
the dam, for she directed Phonny to put out his oar and
row, while she plied her paddle very vigorously. Phonny,
in his trepidation, began first to row the wrong way, and
then Malleville took hold to help him, which only hin-
dered him, so the boat went more than half round before
the young navigators could get command of its motions.
At length, however, they succeeded, and gradually pro-
pelled it to the shore.

There was a little landing by the mill, at a place near
the flume, where the water went in through a grating to
turn the great water-wheel. Caroline directed the boat
to this landing. When it touched the sand, Phonny got
out and held the boat by the bow until the other voyagers
had disembarked. They then secured the boat by tying
the painter to a post which had been set in the ground
there, expressly for such uses.

There was a path leading from this landing to a door

37

said Phonny, “we shall be carried over