casins. You cannot go walking about in the
woods in those boots. You had better get a rifle. Your sword you had
best leave behind. It will be of no use to you, and will only be in
your way."

James had no difficulty in providing himself with a gun, for numbers of
weapons, picked up in the woods after the rout of the enemy, were
stored in camp. The rifles had, however, been all taken by the troops,
who had exchanged their own firelocks for them. Captain Rogers went
with him among the men, and selected a well-finished rifle of which one
of them had possessed himself. Its owner readily agreed to accept five
pounds for it, taking in its stead one of the guns in the store. Before
choosing it, Captain Rogers placed a bit of paper against a tree, and
fired several shots at various distances at it.

"It is a beautiful rifle," he said. "Its only fault is that it is
rather heavy, but it shoots all the better for it. It is evidently a
French gun, I should say by a first-rate maker, built probably for some
French officer who knew what he was about. It is a good workmanlike
piece, and, when you learn to hold it straight, you can trust it to
shoot."

That evening James, having made all his preparations, said goodbye to
the general and to his other friends, and joined the scouts who were
gathering by the shore of the lake. Ten canoes, each of which would
carry three men, were lying by the shore.

"Nat, you and Jonathan will take this young fellow with you. He is a
lad, and it is his first scout. You will find him of the right sort. He
was with Braddock, and after that affair hurried up here to see
fighting on the lakes. He can't have two better nurses than you are. He
is going to be an officer in the king's army, and wants to learn as
much as he can, so that, if he ever gets with his men into such a mess
as Braddock tumbled into, he will know what to do with them."

"All right, captain! We will do our best for him. It's risky sort of
business ours for a greenhorn, but if he is anyways teachable, we will
soon make a man of him."

The speaker was a wiry, active man of some forty years old, with a
weatherbeaten face, and a keen gray eye. Jonathan, his comrade, was a
head taller, with broad shoulders, powerful limbs, and a quiet but
good-tempered face.

"That's so, isn't it, Jonathan?" Nat asked.

Jonathan nodded. He was not a man of many words.

"Have you ever been in a canoe before?" Nat inquired.

"Never," James said; "but