rd
pillow, stretched his form in the bottom of the canoe, and slept.

Chapter VII.

"Clear, placid Leman I Thy contrasted lake
With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing
Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake
Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring.
This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing
To waft me from distraction; once I loved
Torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring
Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved,
That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved."

BYRON.

Day had fairly dawned before the young man, whom we have left in the
situation described in the last chapter, again opened his eyes. This
was no sooner done, than he started up, and looked about him with
the eagerness of one who suddenly felt the importance of accurately
ascertaining his precise position. His rest had been deep and
undisturbed; and when he awoke, it was with a clearness of intellect and
a readiness of resources that were very much needed at that particular
moment. The sun had not risen, it is true, but the vault of heaven was
rich with the winning softness that "brings and shuts the day," while
the whole air was filled with the carols of birds, the hymns of the
feathered tribe. These sounds first told Deerslayer the risks he ran.
The air, for wind it could scarce be called, was still light, it is
true, but it had increased a little in the course of the night, and
as the canoes were feathers on the water, they had drifted twice the
expected distance; and, what was still more dangerous, had approached
so near the base of the mountain that here rose precipitously from the
eastern shore, as to render the carols of the birds plainly audible.
This was not the worst. The third canoe had taken the same direction,
and was slowly drifting towards a point where it must inevitably
touch, unless turned aside by a shift of wind, or human hands. In other
respects, nothing presented itself to attract attention, or to awaken
alarm. The castle stood on its shoal, nearly abreast of the canoes, for
the drift had amounted to miles in the course of the night, and the ark
lay fastened to its piles, as both had been left so many hours before.

As a matter of course, Deerslayer's attention was first given to the
canoe ahead. It was already quite near the point, and a very few strokes
of the paddle sufficed to tell him that it must touch before he could
possibly overtake it. Just at thi