Ian Hay

“ Two pleasure boats, packed to the gunnels with humorous young men and appreciative young women, were sweeping downstream with oars interlocked, the occupants of one vessel engaged in a playful attempt to capsize the other.
‘Perishing asses!’ growled Denny. ‘Just above the weir too! My God, look!’
A third craft—a punt containing two women and a little girl in a white frock, the latter crawling precariously about on the forward locker—had suddenly swung athwart the stream, right in the track of the oncoming and unheeding combatants. ”

“ Half an hour works wonders when we are twenty-one; and, to be frank, Denny and Phyllis had wasted no time over the fireworks. Having moored their canoe beneath a friendly willow half way up the reach, they were devoting the balance of their evening to the furtherance of their mutual acquaintance, with the progress indicated above. ”

“ His light craft was now racing diagonally across the current, making considerable leeway, but progressing nevertheless. Barely a hundred yards below him lay the sharp point of Abbot’s Island, buttressed with stakes and wattles, and splitting the river like a wedge. ”