Book meme

I found this meme at Lunea Weatherstone's Blogue and Beyond the Fields we Know, and both of them invited anyone who was interested to take it up. Since it's about books, I thought I'd have a go.

1. Pick up the nearest book with more than 123 pages.
2. Turn to page 123 and count down 5 sentences.
3. Post the next three sentences.
4. Anyone else who would like a go, feel free.

The nearest book to my computer turned out to be Nancy Blackett: Under Sail with Arthur Ransome, by Roger Wardale. Page 123 is taken up with a passage from one of Arthur Ransome's children's books; We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, which is in his Swallows and Amazons series, and one of the best, I think. To give a bit of context, I've included more than three sentences:

"Can I sound the foghorn again?" said Roger.
"No... Wait half a minute... We've got to make up our minds."
"Let's do what John says," said Titty. "Daddy'd say the same... You know... When it's Life and Death all rules go by the board. Of course, it isn't Life and Death yet, but it easily might be if we bumped the Goblin on a shoal."

Arthur Ransome wrote twelve Swallows and Amazons books, and he also did a lot of sailing himself, when he wasn't being a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, or a spy in early Soviet Russia. This book describes how his yacht the Nancy Blackett, named for the Captain of the Amazons in his books, was found decaying in Scarborough docks, bought, and lovingly restored to it's former glory.