8&4 CAROLINE.

 

The rocking-boat. Some account of it. Rocking in it.

 

 

“What is a rocking-boat ?” asked one of the children.

“ Oh, it is a kind of a boat to rock in,” replied Caroline.
“ Come and see it.”

A considerable number of the party immediately arose
and followed Caroline down through a winding path,
which led through a copse of shrubbery, until at length
they came to a shady nook where there was a platform,
and upon the platform, what Caroline called her rocking-
boat. It was made somewhat in the form of a boat, only
the bottom being rounded from front to back, it could be
rocked to and fro ;—not from side to side, like a cradle,
but backward and forward, like a rocking-herse.

“ Now get in,
said Caroline, “and I
will rock you.”

So the children
clambered in, and
Caroline began to
rock them. Wallace
and Livingston help-
ed her. Presently
they all got into the
boat, and went on
rocking it from with-
in. This they could
easily do by bending
their bodies  back~

THE ROCKING BOAT ward and forward, as
if they were bowing to each other. Presently, Caroline
proposed that they should sing; and pitching the tune,
she led off in some simple song, which most of the com-
pany knew. She was soon joined by other voices, and

19