“Any last word for your relatives, Tom?”
“Ted’s got a life-preserver under his shirt, fellows! See it?”
“All aboard!”
“Elbows in, Jack! Remember your form!”
“Are you ready?” cried Mr. Bendix. “Go!”
Twelve paddles bent together, and the six canoes shot away, side by side, toward the first barrier. A babel of shouts and shrieks from the shore. Six canoes dashing wildly downstream, amid showers of spray. “Hold hard!” Paddles gripping the water and canoes slowing down at the ladder. Then the fun! One crew drove their craft against the farther bank, lifted it, and carried it around the end of the barrier, tripping in their excitement over the rope and nearly wrecking their canoe. Cries of “Foul! Foul!” “O you babies!” and “Squealers!” greeted this trick. Meanwhile the other crews were having their troubles. Some swung their canoes broadside to the ladder and, climbing out onto it, strove to lift the crafts over. One couple succeeded very well, but the others had their mishaps. Tom and Alf jumped into the water, and tried to lift their canoe over bow forward. Any one who has ever trod water, and attempted to lift the bow of a canoe eighteen inches above the surface, will have a fairly good conception of the struggle that ensued. In the end, they got the bow onto the ladder and then, shoving and floundering, pushed the rest of it over, dived underneath, and scrambled back into their places. One canoe never passed the ladder at all, the obstacle proving too much for its crew. The other five went on at last, the one that had been taken around by the bank far in the lead.
But this one met retribution at the line of barrels. Tom had evolved the wonderful scheme of leaping nimbly to one of the casks and there, maintaining his balance in some manner not explained, lifting the bow of the craft from the water. He made the leap beautifully, but the barrel acted just as any normal barrel will act under such circumstances; and the youth went into the river, head foremost, about ten feet on the other side, leaving his companion in the stern of a canoe, which, nose in air, proceeded to turn circles. On the bank boys held their sides, the tears streaming from their eyes, or frankly laid themselves down and rolled over and over in their glee.
[Alf], from the bow of his canoe, [squirmed onto one of the barrels and held the craft], while Tom, laboring manfully, tried to push the nose of it over. That wasn’t a success, and so Tom dropped his paddle and dived overboard. Alf seized that moment to slide from his precarious position, and the canoe started to go its own way. Yet, in spite of all such misadventures, their canoe was the first over, and they were in it again and paddling hard before the next crew had surmounted the obstacle. And they maintained their lead without difficulty to the island, and disappeared behind it on the farther side while their adherents on land cheered joyously.
[“Alf squirmed onto one of the barrels and held the craft.”]