and other large birds flopped up from points where they
had been fishing, and sailed away up the bayou with great croaks and
hoarse calls, which were answered from the darkness of the dense bush
and high trees by paroquets and many other birds and animals, disturbed
in their slumbers by the unusual invasion.

The canoe paddled steadily on, until some time late in the night they
reached a curious formation in the middle of the swampy forest.

It was an island, not more than an acre in extent, and quite high, where
the padron said they were accustomed to stop to cook and sleep, for the
men had had a long pull.

As soon as they had eaten the hot supper, which the cook served shortly
after landing, the boys lay down in the canoe on soft mats and slept
until the daylight began to show through the tops of the trees.

The old padron soon had the cook up, and he made a pot of coffee such as
the boys, in their experience of ship's cooking, had never tasted, and
off they went again, threading the tortuous channels, which would be
entirely impassable to any one not accustomed to them.

Once or twice they came into a great lake, full of cypress stumps and
knees, and of alligators also, and several times, on the edges of the
cane-brakes which they sometimes passed, were bears and deer and
quantities of smaller animals, as well as birds.

Eph was so interested at all this that he almost forgot his new position
as a messenger carrying important letters, and it was only, at last,
when they pulled into a small canal, that he began to think about it.

This canal led up to a place where the water communication seemed to
stop. The padron left them for a few moments, and then returned with a
dozen negroes, who came from some huts in a grove of trees, and they
quickly ran her up an incline, and were ready to launch her down again.

Then Eph and Eric were really astonished. They were on a great
embankment, or levee, which seemed to hold in the water of a mighty
river, running with resistless force.

The Mississippi, the padron told them; and then pointed to the other
side, below, where there appeared the buildings of a large town, with
towers and the masts of vessels.

It seemed strange to Eph to emerge from a wilderness and to see such
evidences of civilization, but, young as he was, he had already passed
through many strange scenes, and braced himself up for the business with
which he was charged.

The men launched the canoe dow