I'm going to sit on it cross-legged, like a tailor, and shuffle myself over.

It's broad enough for that.

I'll go first." "Oh, I daren't! I'd drop in!" wailed the younger ones in chorus.
"Now don't funk.

What two sillies you are! It won't be as hard as you think.

Just watch me do it." Fortunately the pole had two great advantages: it was firmly fixed in the bank on either side, so that it did not sway about, and, being the trunk of a fir-tree with the bark still left on, its surface offered some grip.