The boat pushed off again, and joined the Sylph. The band commenced playing a popular march; and all the party, with the exception of Mrs. Weston, who had her suspicions as to the stability of the beautiful Zephyr, were in the highest state of enjoyment.
Farther up the lake there was a projecting headland, at the end of which, separated from the shore by a narrow passage of water, not more than ten feet in width, was a small, rocky island. This island and its vicinity were the next points of interest deserving the attention of the voyagers, and thither Frank steered the boat.
"Boys, you all study geography, do you not?" asked Mrs. Sedley.
"All of us, mother," replied Frank.
"Did it ever occur to you that all the natural divisions of water, on a small scale, could be seen in Wood Lake?"
"Can they?" asked Charles. "I would not have believed it."
"I never thought of it before," added Frank.
"Years ago, before I was married, I used to teach school," continued Mrs. Sedley; "and my scholars always found it difficult to remember the definitions of the natural divisions of the earth. What do you think the reason was?"
"I suppose they did not half learn them," replied Fred.
"They did not understand them. When we spoke of a gulf, for example, they thought of something a great way off—as far as the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of St. Lawrence."