ood."

Before the sun went down that night our explorers had plunged into the
very heart of the beautiful country which we have described--now pushing
through tangled underwood, or following the innumerable deer-tracks with
which the country was seamed, or breasting the hill-sides, or making
detours to get round small lakes, being guided, in a westerly direction,
by a small pocket-compass which Captain Trench was fortunately in the
habit of carrying with him wherever he went. No large lakes or broad
rivers had yet been met with, so that up to this point the divergencies
from the direct line had not been great.

Thus they advanced for several days, subsisting on game and fish,
chiefly the last, however; for their shooting powers were very
defective, and Oliver was an ardent--too ardent--fisher. Their
inability to shoot became at last a serious matter, for many arrows and
bolts were lost, as well as much game.

"Look, now, there's _another_ chance," whispered Paul, pointing to a
plump willow-grouse that sat in a bush in front of them. "You try
first, Master Trench."

"An' _don't_ miss, daddy," said Oliver entreatingly; "there's only the
bones of a rabbit left from this morning's breakfast."

The captain took a fervently careful aim, but went far wide of the mark,
to his intense chagrin. Paul then bent his bow, but without success,
though his arrows stuck in a branch close under the bird, which, being
very tame, only glanced down inquiringly. Oliver's arrow went over it,
and the stone which he afterwards slang made such a rattling in the bush
that the puzzled creature finally retired.

"This is becoming serious," remarked the captain, with a face so solemn
that Paul burst into a fit of laughter.

"Ha! you may laugh, lad," continued Trench, "but if you were as hungry
as I am you'd be more inclined to cry. D'ye think a stout man like me
can sup heartily on rabbit bones?"

"You've forgot, daddy, the four big trout I caught to-day."

"So I have, Olly; well, come and let's have 'em cooked at once."

The fish, which were really more than sufficient without the rabbit
bones, were soon grilling over a huge fire under the canopy of a
spreading birch-tree.

When the skipper had disposed of enough to allay the pangs of hunger, he
turned and said to his comrades, in a tone of marked decision--

"Now, mess-mates, I've been rummagin' my brains a bit, and the outcome
of it is as follows:--`Whatever is worth doin' is w