“Why, Arnold, we little thought that it was you!” they exclaimed in the same breath.
“No time to talk,” was the answer. “I’ll tell you when we are all safe.”
In a few seconds the boat reached the land. Ralph shuddered when he saw how short a distance they were above the place where the waters, raging and foaming, dashed over the rocks. Lilly remarked, also, the great danger they had escaped. Her first impulse was to offer their gratitude to God for their preservation; her next was, to thank the gipsy for the effort he had made on their behalf.
“But you will surely catch cold, Arnold, if you remain in your wet things,” said Lilly.
“No fear for me, young lady,” he answered; “I am seasoned for all weathers, and a little wetting will do me no harm; but, I’m thinking that you young people will be wishing to get home again. How are you to do it?”
“My cousin said that he would row back,” answered Lilly, with a glance at Ralph, indicative of her real opinion on the subject.
“Perhaps, then, you’ll give me a passage, Master Ralph,” said the gipsy. “It’s a long way round by land, and the roads, such as they are, are not a little muddy in some places, and rough in others.”
“Oh, yes, I’ll row you round—or, that is to say, you shall go round in the boat if you will take the oars, for I feel rather tired after rowing all the way down,” replied Ralph, looking very sheepish.
“Well, young gentleman, after my wetting it will be wise to keep in exercise; so, sit down, and I will try what I can do,” said Arnold, taking the oars in a way which showed that he was accustomed to their use.
He put the boat in motion, but instead of rowing out in the stream, he kept close in with the bank, following all its sinuosities, so as to avoid the opposing current. He bent sturdily to the oars, and sent the boat so rapidly through the water, that she went up the stream even faster than she had descended it when Ralph was rowing. For some time he said nothing; perhaps he felt rather ashamed of himself, but if such was the case the feeling wore off. Arnold made the boat skim over the water so easily, that at last he began to fancy that he could do the same. Surely he could do everything better than a wretched gipsy, who only the other day was almost starving.