The Argosy — page 173: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

158 Heads or Tails? sang after it,” he asked Violet if she would be ready for the canoeing at eleven o’clock; and punctual to the minute his good-tempered head appeared at the door, just as all the bells in Oxford were chiming the hour. They set off alone together across the park to the private boat- house on the upper reaches of the winding Cherwell. If anyone is inclined to question the propriety of this young man and this maiden starting on an expedition together, let him or her please to remember that a Canadian canoe does not conveniently hold more than two persons. Whilst Violet lingered on the banks, Dick hurried into the boat- house, unslung and carried down to the river the light birch canoe, and arranged the cushions luxuriously along the bottom of it: adding an extra warm fur rug for Violet to sit on and another to wrap over her—which he had thoughtfully brought with him for the purpose. ‘Then he paddled down to where she was waiting, and helping her to step daintily into the canoe—a very necessary precaution unless you mean to have an impromptu bathe—they started up stream. It was a glorious autumn morning, and Violet lying back upon her cushions most thoroughly enjoyed herself. Of human beings there were none in sight, but of life there was plenty. First, a moor-hen rose startled from her bed of reeds and rushes; then a gaudy kingfisher darted down stream in search of his dinner; a wagtail sat upon the bending boughs of a willow tree and surveyed the world timorously from his own point of view; anda water rat, frightened by the faint sound of the paddle, dived out of danger into the soft mud of the bed of the river. Dick was a most expert paddler and amused himself by steering the canoe within an inch of the bank and never touching it. Some- times he issued a sudden command to ‘‘ Duck your head!” And then Violet, who was so low down before in the boat she scarcely imagined herself capable of shrinking any more, would nevertheless obey orders somehow or other, and notice that her little soft hat had narrowly escaped being carried away by a big over-hanging bough. ‘What puzzles me,” she said after one or two such experiences, “fis, what becomes of you !” And she looked back at her great tall companion. “Oh! I’m pretty clever at telescoping up; I’ve had a good deal of practice in that way, you know.” And then Dick chatted away and told her, innocently and without a suspicion of conceit, about a great many other things of which he had considerable experience ; finishing up his long eulogium upon boat racing in general with the remark: “The College fours are on next week. I do hope you will come down to the river and see them.” “« Are you rowing in them ?” ** Rather !” ‘And shall you win?” ECORMMICLMOOOKS EO) im