I was so elated with my own part of this performance that I then and
there determined to put into execution a plan I had long formed of
endowing the little boat in which I take what the French call my walks on
the water, with cushions for the back and seat of the benches usually
occupied by myself and Mr. ----; so putting on my large straw hat, and
plucking up a paper of pins, scissors, and my brown holland, I walked to
the steps, and jumping into the little canoe, began piecing, and
measuring, and cutting the cushions, which were to be stuffed with the
tree moss by some of the people who understand making a rough kind of
mattress. My inanimate subject, however, proved far more troublesome to
fit than my living lay figure, for the little cockle-shell ducked, and
dived, and rocked, and tipped, and curtseyed, and tilted, as I knelt
first on one side and then on the other fitting her, till I was almost
in despair; however, I got a sort of pattern at last, and by dint of some
pertinacious efforts--which, in their incompleteness, did not escape some
sarcastic remarks from Mr. ---- on the capabilities of 'women of genius'
applied to common-place objects--the matter was accomplished, and the
little Dolphin rejoiced in very tidy back and seat cushions, covered with
brown holland, and bound with green serge. My ambition then began to
contemplate an awning, but the boat being of the nature of a
canoe--though not a real one, inasmuch as it is not made of a single
log--does not admit of supports for such an edifice.

I had rather a fright the other day in that same small craft, into which I
had taken S----, with the intention of paddling myself a little way down
the river and back. I used to row tolerably well, and was very fond of it,
and frequently here take an oar, when the men are rowing me in the long
boat, as some sort of equivalent for my riding, of which, of course, I am
entirely deprived on this little dykeland of ours; but paddling is a
perfectly different process, and one that I was very anxious to achieve.