Call the men A, B, C, D, E, and their respective wives a, b, c, d, e.  To go over and return counts as two crossings.  No tricks such as ropes, swimming, currents, etc., are permitted.

376.—­THE FOUR ELOPEMENTS.

Colonel B——­ was a widower of a very taciturn disposition.  His treatment of his four daughters was unusually severe, almost cruel, and they not unnaturally felt disposed to resent it.  Being charming girls with every virtue and many accomplishments, it is not surprising that each had a fond admirer.  But the father forbade the young men to call at his house, intercepted all letters, and placed his daughters under stricter supervision than ever.  But love, which scorns locks and keys and garden walls, was equal to the occasion, and the four youths conspired together and planned a general elopement.

At the foot of the tennis lawn at the bottom of the garden ran the silver Thames, and one night, after the four girls had been safely conducted from a dormitory window to terra firma, they all crept softly down to the bank of the river, where a small boat belonging to the Colonel was moored.  With this they proposed to cross to the opposite side and make their way to a lane where conveyances were waiting to carry them in their flight.  Alas! here at the water’s brink their difficulties already began.

The young men were so extremely jealous that not one of them would allow his prospective bride to remain at any time in the company of another man, or men, unless he himself were present also.  Now, the boat would only hold two persons, though it could, of course, be rowed by one, and it seemed impossible that the four couples would ever get across.  But midway in the stream was a small island, and this seemed to present a way out of the difficulty, because a person or persons could be left there while the boat was rowed back or to the opposite shore.  If they had been prepared for their difficulty they could have easily worked out a solution to the little poser at any other time.  But they were now so hurried and excited in their flight that the confusion they soon got into was exceedingly amusing—­or would have been to any one except themselves.

As a consequence they took twice as long and crossed the river twice as often as was really necessary.  Meanwhile, the Colonel, who was a very light sleeper, thought he heard a splash of oars.  He quickly raised the alarm among his household, and the young ladies were found to be missing.  Somebody was sent to the police-station, and a number of officers soon aided in the pursuit of the fugitives, who, in consequence of that delay in crossing the river, were quickly overtaken.  The four girls returned sadly to their homes, and afterwards broke off their engagements in disgust.

For a considerable time it was a mystery how the party of eight managed to cross the river in that little boat without any girl being ever left with a man, unless her betrothed was also present.  The favourite method is to take eight counters or pieces of cardboard and mark them A, B, C, D, a, b, c, d, to represent the four men and their prospective brides, and carry them from one side of a table to the other in a matchbox (to represent the boat), a penny being placed in the middle of the table as the island.