The _Sarah_ led the way, the _Firefly_ following close in our wake.

As long as the friendly emulation between the two teams endured, we made fair progress.
But when it was discovered that the _Firefly_ had meanly hitched itself on to the stern of the _Sarah_, and was permitting our four "paupers" to pull the whole cavalcade, a difference of opinion arose.

The _Firefly_ tugs, having nothing to do, amused themselves by peppering the inoffensive crew of the _Sarah_ with pebbles from the bank; while the outraged pullers of the _Sarah_, finding themselves tricked, struck work altogether, and alter pulling our head round into a bed of tall bulrushes, cast off the yoke and went for their fellow-"paupers." To add to the general confusion, a real barge, towed by a real horse, came down to meet us, threatening with its rope to decapitate the whole of our party, and, whether we liked it or not, to drag us back to Low Heath.
In the midst of all this trouble, I, as president, was loudly and angrily appealed to to "look out" and "make them shut up," and "port the helm, you lout," as if it was all my fault! I tried to explain that it wasn't, but nobody would trouble to listen to me.

How we avoided the peril of the barge I really cannot tell.

It lumbered past us in a very bad temper, deluging us as it did so with the splashing from its suddenly slackened rope, and indulging in remarks on things in general, and schoolboys in particular, which were not pleasant to listen to, and quite impossible to repeat.
However, as has been truly said, a common danger is often a common blessing.