shed carrying away the branches, the stake
was entirely loosened from its bed, and was just ready to topple over.

As the boat continued to pull upon it, this way and that, as it was
agitated by the fluctuation of the water, it soon drew it down, and the
boat, being now entirely at liberty, began to move slowly off from the
shore. It soon drifted out where it was more fully exposed to the action
of the wind, when it began to move much faster. And thus, while our
party of voyagers were eating their dinner, seated on a flat rock, by
the side of a good fire, in fancied security, their boat was quietly
drifting away, thus apparently cutting them off from all communication
with the main land.

Marco made the discovery that the boat was gone, just after finishing
his dinner, and he immediately gave the alarm. Forester and the boatman
came at once to the spot. They could just see the boat, half a mile
distant, under a ledge of rocks, which formed the shore in that place.

This was the third time, on this journey, that Marco had found himself
isolated in circumstances of difficulty and danger, and cut off,
apparently, from all convenient means of retreat; and, at first, he
thought that this was the worst and the most dangerous of the three. In
fact, he did not see in what possible way they could escape.

"What shall we do?" asked Forester.

"We must make a raft, somehow or other," said the boatman. "If I had a
log, I could go after the boat on that."

"Won't this tree answer for a log?" asked Marco.

The boatman looked at the tree. He said that, if he had an axe, he
thought he could cut off the top, and roll the trunk into the water; but
it would take him a long time, he said, to hack it off with the hatchet.

There seemed to be, however, no alternative; so he set himself at work,
and in due time he cut off the stem of the tree, just where it entered
the water. They all three then took levers, which the boatman made with
his hatchet, and, by making great exertion, they got the log out of the
sand, and rolled it round into the water, where it floated. The man then
cut a long pole, and, mounting upon the log, he pushed himself out over
the surface of the water.

Forester and Marco watched his progress with great interest. Marco
thought that he would certainly roll off the log, but he seemed to stand
and to walk upon it, perfectly at his ease. He would advance to the
forward end of the log, and then, planting the foot of