"
Just then a head appeared above the water, and a spent but infuriated
swimmer struggled up between the houseboat and the bank.
"Oh, there 'e is!" cried the boy delightedly, evidently much relieved at
this satisfactory solution of the mystery; "'e must ha' tumbled off the
punt."
"You're quite right, my lad, that's just what he did do, and there's your
fee for assisting him to do it." Saying which, my dripping friend, who
had now scrambled upon deck, leant over, and following Amenda's excellent
example, expressed his feelings upon the boy's head.
There was one comforting reflection about the transaction as a whole, and
that was that the ferry-boy had at last received a fit and proper reward
for his services. I had often felt inclined to give him something
myself. I think he was, without exception, the most clumsy and stupid
boy I have ever come across; and that is saying a good deal.
His mother undertook that for three-and-sixpence a week he should "make
himself generally useful" to us for a couple of hours every morning.
Those were the old lady's very words, and I repeated them to Amenda when
I introduced the boy to her.
"This is James, Amenda," I said; "he will come down here every morning at
seven, and bring us our milk and the letters, and from then till nine he
will make himself generally useful.
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