"We just got out to disentangle the tow-line, and when we looked round, it was gone!" And they seemed hurt at what they evidently regarded as a mean and ungrateful act on the part of the boat.
We found the truant for them half a mile further down, held by some rushes, and we brought it back to them.

I bet they did not give that boat another chance for a week.
I shall never forget the picture of those two men walking up and down the bank with a tow-line, looking for their boat.
One sees a good many funny incidents up the river in connection with towing.

One of the most common is the sight of a couple of towers, walking briskly along, deep in an animated discussion, while the man in the boat, a hundred yards behind them, is vainly shrieking to them to stop, and making frantic signs of distress with a scull.

Something has gone wrong; the rudder has come off, or the boat-hook has slipped overboard, or his hat has dropped into the water and is floating rapidly down stream.
He calls to them to stop, quite gently and politely at first.
[Picture: Hat in the water] "Hi! stop a minute, will you ?" he shouts cheerily.

"I've dropped my hat over-board." Then: "Hi! Tom--Dick! can't you hear ?" not quite so affably this time.
Then: "Hi! Confound _you_, you dunder-headed idiots! Hi! stop! Oh you--!" After that he springs up, and dances about, and roars himself red in the face, and curses everything he knows.