ene to stimulate the imaginations of the
group of healthy boys who sat in the boat gliding silently but swiftly
down the river.

Hour after hour they sped on, not a boy among them in the least
disposed to avail himself of Sam's permission to lie down for a nap on
the moss in the bottom of the boat. Every bend of the river gave them
a new picture to look at, and finally Sam had to use authority to make
the boys lie down.

"We must all sleep some," he said, "for to-morrow the sun will shine
too strong for sleeping, and we've done a hard day's work. It will be
now about seven or eight hours until sunrise, and there are just
seven of us. It will take half an hour for the rest of you to get to
sleep, and so I'll run the boat for an hour and a half. Then I'll wake
Billy, and he can run it an hour. Then Joe must take the paddle,--his
name is Butler, you see,--and so on in alphabetical order, each of you
taking charge for an hour. If anything happens,--if you get into an
eddy, or for any other reason find yourselves in doubt about anything,
wake me at once. Now go to sleep."

Sam took the first watch, because he wished to see, before going to
sleep, that everything was likely to go well. Then he waked Billy
Bowlegs, and, surrendering the paddle to him, went to sleep.

There was no noise to disturb any one, and all the boys slept soundly,
none of them more soundly than Sam, who had worked especially hard
during the day, and had had a weight of responsibility upon him during
the difficult voyage down the creek. He was quietly sleeping some
hours later when suddenly the boat was sharply jarred, and turned very
nearly on her side, while the water could be heard surging around her
bow and stern.

Sam was on his feet in a moment, and the other boys sprang up quickly.

"Who's at the oar?" cried Sam, "and what's the matter?"

"We've got tangled in the drift, just as I told you we would,"
answered Jake Elliott from the bow, where he sat, paddle in hand, he
being on watch at the time.

"Just as you meant that we should," answered Sam. "You've deliberately
paddled us out of the current into a drift hammock, you sneaking
scoundrel," continued Sam, now thoroughly angry, seizing Jake by the
shoulders, and throwing him violently into the bottom of the boat. "I
have a notion to give you a good thrashing right here, or to set you
ashore and go on without you."

"Do it, Captain! Do it! He deserves it," cried the boys, but Sam had
mad