hough in the right road, going the
wrong way in it.

Forester had a hearty laugh at this discovery, in which Marco joined, as
soon as he fairly understood the case. At first, he was very much
perplexed. He could not believe that they could have got their ideas of
direction so completely reversed.

"Besides," said he, "that man told us that we were in the right way."

"Yes," said Forester, "but he did not tell us that we were _going right_
in it."

"I suppose he did not know which way we were going," said Marco.

The question then arose, what was to be done. Forester proposed that
they should get into the wagon and let Isaiah drive them to No. 3, but
Marco said that he was commander, and he was not going to try to get to
No. 3 any more. He had been travelling back and forth through those
woods long enough, and he declared that he would not vote to go through
them again, if he had to go round the world to get to the other side of
them.

Forester laughed and submitted to the decision; so they all returned to
Isaiah's father's.

The next morning they formed a different plan for pursuing their
journey. They wanted to get to the Quebec road now, as soon as possible,
and they found, by enquiry, that, by taking a boat upon a large pond or
lake, a few miles distant, they could go about twenty miles by water,
through a chain of ponds, which led in the direction in which they
wished to go.

So Forester hired a man to go with them and bring back the boat. They
went, in a wagon, to a place very near the landing, at the pond. The
landing was in a small cove, surrounded by forests. The cove opened out
into the pond by two points of land, rocky and precipitous, and crowned
with evergreen trees. The water was smooth, and the whole scene highly
picturesque. When Marco came in sight of it, he was much pleased with
the prospect of a voyage on such a sheet of water.

There was considerable water in the boat when the party arrived on the
beach, and Forester undertook to bail it out. The man who was going with
them went and cut a bush, with a thick top, to use as a sail, in case
there should be a fair wind. While he was bringing the bush, and
Forester was bailing out the boat, Marco stood upon the beach, looking
at the paddles.

"Does she leak, cousin Forester?" asked Marco.

[Illustration]

"No," said Forester, "I presume not. This water all comes from the
rain."

"I'm glad to hear that," said Marco, "for I don't want to go