t hundred miles of whirlpools,
jagged rocks, and swift and deadly canons we were to travel. I turned
around and looked at the Family. It was my ambition that had brought
them to this. We might never again meet, as a whole. We were sure to
get to Columbia Falls, but not at all sure to get there in the boats. I
looked at the boats; they were, I believe, stout river-boats. But they
were small. Undeniably, they were very small.

The river appeared to be going about ninety miles an hour. There was one
hope, however. Perhaps they could not get the boats down over the bluff.
It seemed a foolhardy thing even to try. I suggested this to Bob. But he
replied, rather tartly, that he had not brought those boats at the risk
of his life through all those miles of wilderness to have me fail him
now.

He painted the joys of the trip. He expressed so strong a belief in them
that he said that he himself would ride with the outfit, thus permitting
most of the Family in the boats that first day. He said the river was
full of trout. I expressed a strong doubt that any trout could live in
that stream and hold their own. I felt that they had all been washed
down years ago. And again I looked at the Family.

Because I knew what would happen. The Family would insist on going
along. It was not going to let mother take this risk alone; it was
going to drown with her if necessary.

The Family jaws were set. _They were going._

The entire outfit lowered the wagon by roping it down. There was one
delicious moment when I thought boats and all were going over the edge.
But the ropes held. Nothing happened.

_They put the boats in the water._

I had one last rather pitiful thought as I took my seat in the stern of
one of them.

"This is my birthday," I said wistfully. "It's rather a queer way to
spend a birthday, I think."

But this was met with stern silence. I was to have my story whether I
wanted it or not.

Yet once in the river, the excitement got me. I had run brief spells of
rapids before. There had been a gasp or two and it was over. But this
was to be a prolonged four days' gasp, with intervals only to sleep at
night.

Fortunately for all of us, it began rather quietly. The current was
swift, so that, once out into the stream, we shot ahead as if we had
been fired out of a gun. But, for all that, the upper reaches were
comparatively free of great rocks. Friendly little sandy shoals beckoned
to us. The water was shallow. But, even