e rocket sizz. It
went off with a terrible report, shaking the whole house and frightening
his companions out of their wits. The landlord rushed into the room
with a "hip, hooray," much delighted.

"That's it," he cried, "that's good," and he yelled again, regardless of
the fact that his carpet was on fire and the room terribly littered
up.

Between Rochester and Wellsville, Paul had an awful time in an ice
gorge. He could hear it cracking and grinding below as though warning
him of danger. He succeeded in climbing on a cake which saved him from
being carried under, and made his way to clear water on the other side.

Below Steubenville, a native from the West Virginia side rowed
frantically out to him.

"Hold on, stranger, I'll resky yo' in a minit," he yelled. When he drew
nearer and Paul spoke to him, he appeared as tickled as a boy at a
monkey show. "Wal, ef yo' aint jus' th' cutes' little cuss I ever seed
paddlin' aroun' out here in the ice like a beaver."

However, he expressed much disgust, not to say contempt, when Boyton
refused to land and take a drink of "Virginia's own Mountain Dew."

After hard work through the ice gorged river, Paul reached Wheeling and
rested there until the next morning. On resuming the voyage he was
frequently compelled to mount an ice cake to look for the best place to
strike open water, where he could get at least enough paddling to keep
up his temperature. While on one of those lookouts he heard the clear,
ringing sound of an ax on the frosty morning air, wielded by the
powerful arm of some hardy chopper. Looking along shore Paul discovered
the wood cutter just about the same instant that worthy discovered him.
The tall, lank West Virginian eyed the strange looking creature far a
second, dropped the ax and started in a lope for his cabin. Suspecting
that the curious landsman was going after his rifle, as it is customary
for them to shoot at anything in the water they cannot understand,
Boyton sounded a lusty blast on the bugle to attract the chopper's
attention from the shooting iron. The man returned to the water's
edge, loosened a flat bottomed boat from the ice and with an iron shod
pole pushed out from shore toward Paul, who was rapidly approaching
with the floe. As Boyton neared the woodcutter he thought, "Here comes
another lantern-jawed individual who wants to ask me if I'm cold."
To his surprise the man never opened his mouth, bu