ventures, but also to communicate, in connexion with them, as
extensive and varied information as possible, in respect to the
geography, the scenery, the customs and the institutions of this
country, as they present themselves to the observation of the little
traveller, who makes his excursions under the guidance of an intelligent
and well-informed companion, qualified to assist him in the acquisition
of knowledge and in the formation of character. The author will endeavor
to enliven his narrative, and to infuse into it elements of a salutary
moral influence, by means of personal incidents befalling the actors in
the story. These incidents are, of course, imaginary--but the reader may
rely upon the strict and exact truth and fidelity of all the
descriptions of places, institutions and scenes, which are brought
before his mind in the progress of the narrative. Thus, though the
author hopes that the readers, who may honor these volumes with their
perusal, will be amused and interested by them, his design throughout
will be to instruct rather than to entertain.

MARCO PAUL IN THE FORESTS
OF MAINE.

CHAPTER I.

THE MOUTH OF THE KENNEBEC.

One summer, Forester and Marco Paul formed a plan for going to Quebec.
Marco was very much interested in going to Quebec, as he wanted to see
the fortifications. Forester had told him that Quebec was a
strongly-fortified city, being a military post of great importance,
belonging to the British government. Marco was very much pleased at the
idea of seeing the fortifications, and the soldiers that he supposed
must be placed there to defend them.

On their way to Quebec, they had to sail up the Kennebec in a steamboat.
As they were passing along, Marco and Forester sat upon the deck. It was
a pleasant summer morning. They had been sailing all night upon the sea,
on the route from Boston to the mouth of the Kennebec. They entered the
mouth of the Kennebec very early in the morning, just before Forester
and Marco got up. And thus it happened that when they came up upon the
deck, they found that they were sailing in a river. The water was smooth
and glassy, shining brilliantly under the rays of the morning sun, which
was just beginning to rise.

The shores of the river were rocky and barren. Here and there, in the
coves and eddies, were what appeared to Marco to be little fences in the
water. Forester told him that they were for catching fish. The steamboat
moved very slowl