r seventy darkies
hanging about now."

"Oh, no!" said Harvey, "not so many as that; not over forty-seven."

"I'm going over to Lewston's. Perhaps he knows of a boat," said Harry;
and away he ran.

But Lewston was not in his cabin, and so Harry hurried along a road in
the woods that led by another negro cabin about a half-mile away,
thinking that the old man had gone off in that direction. Every minute
or two he shouted at the top of his voice, "Oh, Lewston!"

Very soon he heard some one shouting in reply, and he recognized
Lewston's voice. It seemed to come from the creek.

Thereupon, Harry made his way through the trees and soon caught sight of
the old colored man. He was in a boat, poling his way along in the
shallow water as close to dry land as the woods allowed him, and
sometimes, where the trees were wide apart, sending the boat right
between some of their tall trunks.

"Hello, Lewston," cried Harry, running as near as he could go without
getting his shoes wet, for the water ran up quite a distance among the
trees in some places. "What are you about? Where did you get that boat?
I want a boat."

"Dat's jist what I thought, Mah'sr Harry," said Lewston, still poling
away as hard as he could. "I know de compuny'd want to git ober de
creek, an' I jist went up to Hiram Anderson's and borrowed his ole boat.
Ise been a-bailing her out all de mornin'."

"You're a trump, Lewston," said Harry. "Pole her down opposite your
house, and then one of us will go over. Why don't you go out farther?
You can't get along half as fast in here by the trees and hummocks as
you could in deeper water."

"You don't ketch me out dar in dat runnin' water," said Lewston. "I'd be
in the middle afore I knowed it, and dis pole's pooty short."

"Well, come along as fast as you can," cried Harry, "and I'll run down
to your house and get your axe to cut a longer pole."

By the time Harry had found a tall young sapling, and had cut it down
and trimmed it off, Lewston arrived with the boat.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CROSSING THE CREEK.

"Now, then," said Harry, "here's the boat and a good pole, and you've
nothing to do, Harvey, but just to get in and push yourself over to your
station as fast as you can."

But the situation did not seem to strike Harvey very favorably. He
looked rather dissatisfied with the arrangement made for him.

"I can't swim," he said. "At least, not much, you know."

"Well, who wants you to swim?" said Harr