he boy and I, using
the bow paddles, are in the front of the adventure, guessing at the
best channel, pushing aside suddenly to avoid treacherous stones hidden
with dark moss, dashing swiftly down the long dancing rapids, with the
shouting of the waves in our ears and the sprinkle of the foam in our
faces.

From side to side of the wild avenue through the forest we turn and
dart, zigzagging among the rocks. Thick woods shut us in on either
hand, pines and hemlocks and firs and spruces, beeches and maples and
yellow-birches, alders with their brown seed-cones, and mountain-ashes
with their scarlet berries. All four of us know the way; there can be
no doubt about that, for down the river is the only road out. But none
of us knows the path; for this is a new stream, you remember, and
between us and our journey's end there lie a thousand possible
difficulties, accidents, and escapes.

The boy had one of them. His canoe struck on a ledge, in passing over a
little fall, swung around sidewise to the current, and half filled with
water; he and Harry had to leap out into the stream waist-deep. Sam and
I made merry at their plight. But Nemesis was waiting for me a few
miles below.

All the pools were full of fine trout. While the men were cooking lunch
in a grove of balsams I waded down-stream to get another brace of fish.
Stepping carefully among the rocks, I stood about thigh-deep in my
rubber boots and cast across the pool. But the best bit of water was a
little beyond my reach. A step further! There is a yellow bit of gravel
that will give a good footing. Intent upon the flight of my flies, I
took the step without care. But the yellow patch under the brown water
was not gravel; it was the face of a rock polished smoother than glass.
Gently, slowly, irresistibly, and with deep indignation I subsided
backward into the cold pool. The rubber boots filled with water and the
immersion was complete. Then I stood up and got the trout. When I
returned to the camp-fire, the others laughed at me uproariously, and
the boy said: "Why did you go in swimming with your clothes on? Were
you expecting a party of ladies to come down the stream?"

Our tenting-places were new every night and forsaken every morning.
Each of them had a charm of its own. One was under a great yellow-birch
tree, close to the bank of the river. Another was on top of a bare
ridge in the middle of a vast blueberry patch, where the luscious
fruit, cool and fresh wit