"I am going to Heidelberg on a raft. Will you venture with me?"
Harris wanted to cable his mother--thought it his duty to do that, as he was all she had in this world--so, while he attended to this, I went down to the longest and finest raft and hailed the captain with a hearty "Ahoy, shipmate!" which put us upon pleasant terms at once, and we entered upon business.
All agreed with me, and we spent the day in building
rafts, each capable of carrying three persons.
Crooks and His Comrades.- Tidings of MLellan.- A Retrograde March.- A Willow
Raft.- Extreme Suffering of Some of the Party - Illness of Mr.
By and by along comes part of a log
raft -- nine logs fast together.
They got along quite well at first, but when they reached the middle of the river the swift current swept the
raft downstream, farther and farther away from the road of yellow brick.
I hate work of any kind, and making a
raft is hard work."
My
raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight.
I am going to send you away of my own free will; so go, cut some beams of wood, and make yourself a large
raft with an upper deck that it may carry you safely over the sea.
Prince Andrew, leaning his arms on the
raft railing, gazed silently at the flooding waters glittering in the setting sun.
They saw a fire smouldering upon a great
raft a hundred yards above, and they went stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk.
the Russians are coming!" cried the defenders to the workers; and the work went on, the
raft increased in length and breadth and depth.