first the borders of the big Sassafras Swamp did not look
so very forbidding. Elmer warned them not to expect that this
condition of affairs would last long.

"You remember what Johnny told us," he remarked so that all of them
could hear his words; "it keeps getting worse the further you go in.
Things are easy to begin with, but after a while we'll have our hands
full. Above all things we must keep our heads about us, for if we do
that we'll escape getting lost."

"Then Johnny did admit a fellow could get lost in this place, did he?"
inquired Landy, uneasily.

"He used to lose his way often when he first started coming in here
after muskrats," confessed Elmer; "and then he began to have some
system about his excursions so that by degrees he got it all down pat."

"Yes, Johnny said he believed he could pole a boat pretty much into the
heart of Sassafras with his eyes shut or bandaged," remarked Lil Artha.

"Too bad he couldn't get off and be along with us," lamented Landy;
"and Elmer, if we'd only promised Farmer Trotter five dollars a day
he'd have let his help join us, I'm sure of that."

"Huh! too bad you didn't think of that before, Landy, and put it up to
Elmer," jeered Lil Artha; "but I wouldn't bother too much about it if I
was you. Chances are we won't get lost much; and by the same token,
even if we do it'll be some kind of a sensation to wake us up."

Landy scratched his head, but not knowing how much of this was intended
by his tormentor he did not reply. As they were gradually working
further into the dense growth by now there was enough around them to
chain their attention and arouse their interest.

In some places they could see that the shore stood above the sluggish
water, although covered for the most part with dense shrubbery that
would be difficult to pass through. Channels began to be met with
running to the right and left, so that it behooved Elmer to remember
the explicit directions given by the muskrat trapper if he wished to
avoid getting side-tracked in the start.

Lil Artha, in the other boat, was also using his knowledge of woodcraft
to some purpose. When it happened that the two skiffs came alongside
he called out to Elmer, as if to settle some point he had in mind.

"Even if I hadn't listened when Johnny was laying down the law to us
about the main channel in here, Elmer, I reckon I'd had no trouble
stickin' to the same, up to now, anyhow."

"Why tho, Lil Artha?" asked Ted