This seemed to me most unreasonable.

It had been arranged in the morning that I should bring the boat up to three miles above Reading.

Well, here we were, ten miles above Reading! Surely it was now their turn again.
I could not get either George or Harris to see the matter in its proper light, however; so, to save argument, I took the sculls.

I had not been pulling for more than a minute or so, when George noticed something black floating on the water, and we drew up to it.

George leant over, as we neared it, and laid hold of it.