and there had been a perfect calm, but
as we paddled on we saw clouds rising above the high ground for which we
were steering. They rose, and rose, and then rushed across the sky with
fearful rapidity, and the water ahead of us, hitherto bright and clear,
seemed turned into a mass of foam, which came sweeping up towards us.

"We cannot face it," exclaimed Malcolm. "Quick, quick, about with the
canoe, we must run before it."

We were hardly in time. The blast very nearly upset the canoe, and we
had to throw our whole weight over on the side the wind struck her, to
prevent this, as she spun round like a top, and away we flew before it.
All we could do was to keep the canoe before the wind, and to steer her
clear of logs of wood or stumps of trees, against which she might have
been cast and knocked to pieces.

"But where are we going?" we asked ourselves. "If we continue thus, we
may be driven into Lake Winnipeg, and hurled among the masses of ice
which are dashing about on its waters."

We thought still more about our father and Sam. How disappointed they
would be, should they have reached the dry land when the storm came on,
and they knew that we could not get to them. But our attention, I must
own, was soon concentrated on our own situation. The rain fell in
torrents, sufficient of itself almost to swamp our light canoe, while
the thunder roared and the lightning darted from the sky, filling my
heart, at all events, with terror. I felt both awe-struck and alarmed,
and could scarcely recover myself sufficiently to help Malcolm. He was
far less moved, and continued guiding the canoe with his former
calmness. At last I could not help crying out--

"Oh, Malcolm, how is it that you cannot see our danger?"

"I do, Harry, clearly," he answered gravely; "but we are in the
performance of our duty, and God will take care of us."

His words and tone made an impression on me which I have never
forgotten. When dangers have surrounded me, I have asked myself, "Am I
engaged in the performance of my duty? then why need I fear, God will
protect me. He always has protected me." The grandest receipt for
enabling a person to be truly brave, is that he must ever walk on in the
strict line of duty.

We were driving northward at a fearful rate, for the rapidity of the
current was greatly increased by the wind. We wished that we could get
back to our oak tree, as we might make fast to its branches, but it was
nowhere vi