thicket covered with low
bushes, which rose above green moss and tufts of grasses. In places
the swamp looked as though it would hold up either a man or a horse.
None the less, the boys could see where long ago an attempt had been
made to corduroy the bog. Some of the poles and logs, broken in the
middle, stuck up out of the mud. A black seam, filled with broken bits
of poles, trampled moss and bushes, and oozing mud, showed the
direction of the trail, as well as proved how deceptive the surface of
an unbroken muskeg can be.

"Now, Jesse," said Uncle Dick, "you and John take your guns and go
across on foot on one side of the trail. It will probably hold you if
you keep moving and step on the tufts and the bushes. The rest of us
will have to do the best we can with the horses."

"Why can't the horses go out there, too?" demanded Jesse. "It looks
all right."

"There are times," said Uncle Dick, "when I wish all horses had been
born with webbed feet. The hoof of a horse seems made purposely to cut
through a muskeg, and the leg of a horse is just long enough to tangle
him up in one. None the less, here is the muskeg, and here we are with
our horses, and we must get across. We'll not go dry into camp this
day, nor clean, either."

The two younger boys were able to get across without any very serious
mishaps, and presently they stood, a hundred yards or more away,
waiting to see what was going to happen. The horses all stood looking
at them as though understanding that they were on the farther side of
the troublesome country.

"Get in, Danny," said Uncle Dick, and slapped his riding-pony on the
hip. The plucky little horse walked up to the edge of the soft ground,
pawing at it and sniffing and snorting in dislike. Uncle Dick slapped
him on the hip once more, and in Danny plunged, wallowing ahead
belly-deep in the black slime, slipping and stumbling over the broken
bits of poles, and at times obliged to cease, gallant as were his
struggles. Of course the saddle was entirely covered with mud. None
the less, in some way Danny managed to get across and stood on the
farther side, a very much frightened and disgusted horse.

"She's a bad one, Moise," said Uncle Dick, thoughtfully. "I don't know
how they'll make it with the loads, but we've got to try. Come on,
Rob, let's drive them in."

It took a great deal of shouting and whipping to get the poor brutes
to take to this treacherous morass, but one after the other they wer