estion we
asked each other. We hoped they might; but still it was too possible
that our father would have persisted in remaining in the house, as a
sailor will by his ship, to the last, and Sam we knew, would never have
deserted him. We could just distinguish the heads of some strong
palings above the water, marking the position of our cottage. We made
fast to the tree for a few minutes to rest and recover ourselves, and to
consider what course to pursue. We naturally turned our eyes towards
the rising ground in the south-west, to which our father intended to
drive the cattle. It seemed a long, long way off, still we determined
to attempt to reach it. We felt thankful that the farmer's wife had
supplied us with provisions, though we were too anxious just then to be
hungry. We left the tree and paddled on, but it was very hard work, for
there was a current against us setting towards Lake Winnipeg; but the
canoe was light, and as there was no wind we managed to stem it.
Hitherto the sky had been bright, 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 cut 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 a