I then swallowed my stone, and immediately became almost as tiny as my small cousin, having, for my part, wished to be reduced to the height of an inch and a half, thinking that some sort of distinction ought to be preserved in our relative sizes.

“There!” exclaimed Lionel in a vexed voice, when I had joined him.  “It’s no use after all!  How on earth are we going to get on board?”

“Ah!” cried Shin Shira, laughing good-humouredly and now looking, to us, like a good-natured giant, towering as he did high above our heads. “Now you see the wisdom of my having remained as I am.  I can simply lift you on board and push the boat off for you too.”

Suiting the action to the word, he very gently and carefully picked up first Lionel and then me from the ground and placed us on board the yacht, then gave the boat a little shove which, though he didn’t intend it to do so, sent us both sprawling on the deck and the boat itself well out into the water.

I think I have mentioned that a slight breeze had sprung up, and the Pond was rippled over with tiny waves, upon which our yacht danced merrily, the sails having filled out with wind which drove her along at a fine rate.

Lionel was running all over the deck examining everything eagerly.

“I wish there was a real cabin,” he said; “this is only a dummy one, and I find a lot of the ropes to the sails won’t act properly.  I wonder how you steer the thing, too.”

“By means of the rudder, I should imagine,” I said.

“Of course!” exclaimed Lionel impatiently; “any baby would know that; but this one is fastened up so tightly that I can’t move it.”

“Well, never mind,” said I, “it is evidently set in the right direction; for see, we are heading straight across the Pond, and there’s Shin Shira walking round to be there to meet us when we go ashore,” and I settled myself down comfortably to enjoy the pleasant trip.

“Hullo!  Look at that!” cried Lionel a moment or two later, pointing to the shore.

The lame duck had been disturbed by Shin Shira’s passing, and was slowly waddling towards the water.

“She’s coming in!” declared Lionel.  “By Jove! doesn’t she look a size now we’re so tiny!”

The boy was right, for, to us, the duck now appeared a formidable monster of strange and uncouth shape.  Her bill, as she came quacking into the water, opened and shut in an alarming manner, revealing the fact that, if she desired to do so, she could make a meal of us at one gulp.

Somewhat to our dismay, she seemed impelled by some vague curiosity to swim in our direction, and the situation began to get distinctly alarming as she drew nearer and nearer.

“What on earth shall we do?” exclaimed Lionel.  “I hope to goodness she isn’t going to attack us.  It would be too silly to be swallowed by a duck.”

“I fancy she’s only coming to have a look at us,” I said, “and at any rate, if we shouted at her loudly if she came too near it would probably frighten her away.”