So Mansy, persuaded by Alfy, whom she loved like her own son, and spurred on also by the desire to reach the house, tried again. She leaned on the umbrella, and slowly advanced her right foot as before, but this time she plumped it down into the tub.
Down it bobbed, of course, under her weight. "Oh-h-h!" she cried. "I shall drown you, Alfy!" and hastily she drew back again. "Me in a tub!" she cried. "I can't!"
"It really is all right," said Alfy again. "It will take us both. Why, these flat-bottomed things float in ever such a little water. Try once more, Mansy dear, and then I can give you a kiss."
"I dessay you could, my bonnie baby, and I know you'd do anything to help your old nurse. You're a real good boy; but go in that rockety thing I couldn't!"
"Tisn't rickety, Mansy, when once you are inside. Look here," and he jumped in it, and shook it from side to side. Of course his light weight was nothing to speak of, and it sat like a cork on the water.
"You take over the parcels to your sisters, Alfy dear, and then they'll have something to eat."
"No, I'm not going without you, Mansy!" he exclaimed decidedly, pulling the tub in again by the rope quite close.
"Bless the boy! To think of my little Master Alfy taking his old nurse in a tub! What would your parients say, on the Continong?"
"Well, it must be, you see, Mansy dear, so please come on!"
"Well, if we do turn over, I'll save you, Master Alfy. So now I'll try again."