"Hold on, young fellow. Hold on, you'll be all right." This encouraged
me, for I knew that help was at hand. Suddenly, as I looked up, I saw
the tops of the trees, and presently afterwards I found the swan was
trying to make her way up the bank, while my feet touched the muddy
bottom.
I had no wish to be dragged through the bushes by the swan, so, as I was
close to the shore, I let go, but as I did so, I fell utterly exhausted
on the bank, and was very nearly slipping again into the water. The
swan, finding herself free after going a short distance, closed her
wings, and recollecting, I fancy, that I had been the cause of her
alarm, came rushing back with out-stretched neck, uttering a strange
hissing sound, preparing, as I supposed, to attack me. I was too much
exhausted to try and get up and endeavour to escape from her. Just as
she was within a few feet of me, I saw a boy armed with a thick stick
spring out from among the bushes, and run directly towards her. A blow
from his stick turned her aside, and instead of making for me, she again
plunged into the water, and made her way over the surface in the
direction from which we had come.
"I am very much obliged to you, my fine fellow, for driving off the
swan, or I suppose the savage creature would have mauled me terribly,
had she got up to me."
"Very happy to have done you a service, master; but it didn't give me
much trouble to do it. However, I would advise you not to stop here in
your wet clothes, for the mornings are pretty fresh, and you'll be
catching a bad cold."
"Thank you," I said, "but I do not feel very well able to walk far just
yet."
"Have you got far to go home?" he asked.