This plan was carried out then and continued, once a month, all the summer and all the autumn, as long as the weather permitted. Em. always went with the family when they traveled so far to church; but on other Sundays she went to the gate-house, propitiated Sereny by the gift of a little bit of bright ribbon, or a string of glass beads, and so borrowed old ’Sias from his lawful proprietor to take her down the river to hear the blind preacher of the island. One day as they floated down the stream before a gentle breeze, old ’Sias said to her: “Miss Em., why don’t yer larn to manage de boat yourse’f? It is one ob de easiest things to larn and one ob de ’lightfullest things to know. It would be a great divarsion to yerse’f in the weeky days, when yer can’t hab me to wait on yer.” “Oh, I should like that so much! Would it be a great deal of trouble to you to teach me?” exclaimed the girl. “Why, laws, no, honey! none.” So, then and there, ’Sias gave Em. her first lesson in handling the tiller and steering the boat. When they landed he showed her how to lower the sail. After the preaching, when they were about to return home, he showed her how to hoist the sail, and as they ran up the river he taught her how to trim it. “And sometimes, Miss Em., when dere’s too much wind, or no wind at all, yer can ship de little mast and furl de sail and take de oars. I mus’ teach you some day how to row.” “Oh, do!” said Em. “I should like that ever so much!” The old man kept his word, and soon Em. became quite an expert in the use of the oars as well as in the management of the sail-boat. Every Sunday, attended by old ’Sias, she went to the island preaching, and sometimes during the week, when she could get away, she went alone down to the boat, hoisted the little sail and steered for the island or for some point on the shore. It gave her a new and delightful sense of freedom to feel that she had the power to move over the surface of the water and go from place to place at her pleasure. “I am a bird when I fly through the forest or over the mountains on horseback, and I am a fish when I speed through the waters in my boat!” she gleefully exclaimed to herself one morning in August as she steered for the island. She had never yet landed at the island on any week day or on any other occasion than to attend the preaching of the blind minister. She had at such times kept a bright lookout for the mysterious beauty known to popular superstition as the White Spirit; but she had seen no sign of such a being. She had heard it rumored, indeed, that the lady would not come to the island this season. Now, therefore, on this cool August morning an impulse suddenly moved Em. to steer directly for the island, to land there, go up to the palace and try to get permission from the housekeeper to view the interior once more, and especially to look upon the portrait of the White Spirit.