plained Reuben, "away to the far
north. I've heard it said by Injins that have wandered to the nor'ard
that they've met in with red-skins, who said that there is a big river
flowin' out o' a great lake in the direction o' the north pole, an' that
it runs into the sea there. They may be tellin' truth, or they may be
tellin' lies; I dun know; anyhow, I'm koorious to know somethin' about
it, so I'm goin' north to see for myself, and I've comed to ask if
Swiftarrow will go with me."

The hunter paused, but the Indian remained silently smoking his long
stone-headed pipe, or calumet, with a countenance so grave and
expressionless, that no idea of his sentiments could be gathered from
it. After a brief pause, Reuben continued--

"It won't be altogether a trip of diskivery neither, for I've got some
bales of goods with me, and as we go in a small birch canoe, we'll
travel light; but I hope to come back sunk to the gunwale with furs, for
the red-skins of the far north are like enough to have plenty of pelts,
and they won't ask much for them. As to grub, you and I could manage to
supply ourselves wi' lots o' that anywheres, and I've got plenty of
powder and lead. Moreover, my boy Lawrence is goin' with me."

During the foregoing remarks, the Indian's countenance betrayed no sign
of feeling until the name of Lawrence was mentioned, when a gleam of
satisfaction shot from his eyes. Removing the pipe from his lips, he
puffed a volume of smoke through his nostrils, and said:--

"Swiftarrow will go."

Backwoodsmen seldom take long to mature their plans, and are generally
prompt to carry them into execution. Two days after the brief
conversation above narrated, the three friends pushed off in their
little birch-bark canoe and paddled up the stream which leads to the
Kakabeka Falls on the Kamenistaquoia River. Surmounting this obstacle
by the simple process of carrying the canoe and her lading past the
falls by land, and relaunching on the still water above, they continued
their voyage day by day, encamping under the trees by night, until they
had penetrated far and deep into the heart of the northern wilderness,
and had even passed beyond the most distant establishments of the
adventurous fur-traders.

The world of forest, swamp, lake, and river, that still, however, lay
between them and the land which they sought to reach, was very wide.
Weeks, and even months, would certainly elapse before they could hope to
approach it