had broken their
fast. Moreover, in the repeated packings and unpackings, they were
gaining facility. With the dunnage transported they were ready to attack
the birch-bark, and Lucetta had an inspiration.

"Haven't I seen a picture somewhere of the old _voyageurs_ carrying
their canoes on their heads?" she asked.

"Why, of course!" said Prime. "Why didn't we think of that last night? I
believe I could carry it that way alone. Now, then, over she goes and
up she goes; you set the pace, and for pity's sake don't stumble."

Nobody stumbled, and in due time the canoe was launched below the
rapids, was reloaded, and the paddling was resumed. This day, which
ended in a snug camp at the foot of a stretch of slow water which had
kept them paddling all the afternoon, was a fair sample of their days
through the remainder of the week. Night after night, after they had
been shooting rapids, or making long carries, or paddling steadily
through stretches where the current did not go fast enough for them,
Prime found Lucetta's prophecy as to his growth coming true. Day by day
he was finding himself anew, advancing by leaps and bounds, as it
seemed, into a stronger and fresher and simpler manhood.

And as for the young woman--there were times when the realization that
in a few hours of a single mysterious night she had passed from the
world of the commonplace into a world hitherto unpictured even in her
wildest imaginings, was graspable, but these moments were rare.
Adaptable, even under the fetterings of the conventions, Lucetta
Millington was finding herself fairly gifted now that the fetterings
were removed. From childhood she had longed for an opportunity to
explore the undiscovered regions of her own individuality, and now the
opportunity had come. It pleased her prodigiously to find that Prime
seemed not to be even remotely touched by their unchaperoned condition.
From the first he had been merely the loyal comrade, and she tried
consistently to meet him always upon his own ground--tried and
succeeded.

On the Saturday night they found themselves at the head of a long
portage, still in the heart of the wilderness, and having yet to see the
first sign of any human predecessor along the pathway traced through the
great forest by their little river.

"I can't understand it," Prime said that night over the camp-fire. "We
have covered a good many miles since last Monday, and still we don't
seem to be getting anywhere. Another t