The Court of King Arthur; Stories from the Land of the Round Table
Description:... This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... "What did we go to Cardiff for?" said Helen's mother. "I have explained all that before," I said. "The mistake was not in going to Cardiff, but in choosing the wrong way to come from it." The way that I had chosen to come from Cardiff was by a little steamer that was now taking us up the river Severn and across it to Bristol. I chose this way because of one of my rules for travelling. It is a good rule, too, and it is this: never go anywhere by land when you can go by water. But the best rules fail sometimes, and this time this one had failed utterly. For the steamer was small and not over-clean, it had no cabin and nothing to sit on but boards and boxes and barrels, and the water was so rough that the boat danced about in the most unpleasant way. As we got farther from the shore the water grew rougher still, and whenever the boat plunged into a wave the spray dashed high up and came down all over the deck. And it got worse and worse. Then we found a little spot right in the middle of the boat, behind the funnel and a pile of freight, and there we sat on bags and coils of rope. It was selfish in us, no doubt, to stay there, for it was the only spot on the steamer where the flying spray did not* fall, and it was just big enough for us three. But we thought that since we had been lucky enough to discover the place we might as well have it as anybody, and it was not comfortable after all, only a little less uncomfortable than the rest of the boat. "The trouble is," I said, " that we are on the wrong side of the Severn." "I don't know what you mean by that," said Helen's mother; "I wish that we were safe on either side. The trouble is that we are in the middle of it." "Not at all," I answered; "I mean that we are on the top side of it, when...
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