CHAPTER XI.
THE "STRATFORD-ON-AVON" "_Day after day, day after day We stuck._"-- COLERIDGE, Rime of the Ancient Mariner "Well, and 'ow did the performance go off ?" When Tilda awoke at seven o'clock next morning, the _Success to Commerce_ had made three good miles in the cool of the dawn, and come to anchor again (so to speak) outside the gates of Knowsley top lock, where, as Sam Bossom explained later, the canal began to drop from its summit level.

Six locks, set pretty close together, here formed a stairway for its descent, and Sam would hear no word of breakfast until they had navigated the whole flight.
The work was laborious, and cost him the best part of an hour.

For he had to open and shut each pair of gates single-handed, using a large iron key to lift and close the sluices; and, moreover, Mr.Mortimer, though he did his best, was inexpert at guiding the boat into the lock-chamber and handling her when there.

A dozen times Sam had to call to him to haul closer down towards the bottom gates and avoid fouling his rudder.
The children watched the whole operation from shore, now and then lending their small weight to push open the long gate-beams.

'Dolph, too, watched from shore; suspiciously at first, afterwards with a studied air of boredom, which he relieved by affecting, whenever the heel of a stern-post squeaked in its quoin, to mistake it for a rat--an excuse for aimless snuffling, whining and barking.