What do we find there ?" "Dunno," said Tilda wearily.

"A brass band per'aps, an' a nillumynated address, congratylatin' yer." Sam ignored this sarcasm.
"We find, likely as not, a dozen boats hauled up for the night, blockin' the fairway, an' all the crews ashore at the 'Ring o' Bells' or the 'Lone Woman,' where they doss an' where the stablin' is.

Not a chance for us to get through before mornin'; an' then in a crowd with everybody wantin' to know what Sam Bossom's doin' with two children aboard.
Whereas," he concluded, "if we time ourselves to reach Knowlsey by seven in the mornin', they'll all have locked through an' left the coast clear." Said Tilda, still contemptuous-- "I 'd like to turn Bill loose on this navigation o' yours, as you call it." "Oo's Bill ?" "He works the engine on Gavel's roundabouts; an' he's the best an' the cleverest man in the world." "Unappre'shated, I spose ?" "Why if you 'ad Bill aboard this boat, in less'n a workin' day he'd 'ave her fixed up with boiler an' engine complete, an' be drivin' her like a train." Mr.Bossom grinned.
"I'd like to see 'im twenty minutes later, just to congratilate 'im.
You see, missie, a boat can't go faster than the water travels past 'er--which is rhyme, though I made it myself, an' likewise reason.
Can she, now ?" "I s'pose not," Tilda admitted doubtfully.
"Well now, if your friend Bill started to drive th' old _Success to Commerce_ like a train, first he'd be surprised an' disappointed to see her heavin' a two-foot wave ahead of her--maybe more, maybe less--along both banks; an' next it might annoy 'im a bit when these two waves fell together an' raised a weight o' water full on her bows, whereby she 'd travel like a slug, an' the 'arder he drove the more she wouldn' go; let be that she'd give 'im no time to cuss, even when I arsked 'im perlitely what it felt like to steer a monkey by the tail.

Next _an'_ last, if he should 'appen to find room for a look astern at the banks, it might vex 'im--bein' the best o' men as well as the cleverest--to notice that he 'adn't left no banks, to speak of.

Not that 'twould matter to 'im pers'nally--'avin' no further use for 'em." Tilda, confounded by this close reasoning, was about to retreat with dignity under the admission that, after all, canal-work gave no scope to a genius such as Bill's, when 'Dolph came barking to announce the near approach of Mr.Mortimer.
Mr.Mortimer, approaching with a gait modelled upon Henry Irving's, was clearly in radiant mood.