CHAPTER VI 



Downstream in a Canoe 



ALL my life I had dreamed of the wilder- 

 ness beyond the pale of civilization, the 

 home of the bear and the moose, the deer and 

 the beaver, and wondered vainly if I would 

 ever be fortunate enough to visit this wonder- 

 land, the " Big Woods." 



The little brook in the meadow my fancy 

 had transformed into a wonderful stream in 

 the Maine woods, and going for the cows had 

 been translated into " moose calling " by the 

 same magic. 



But now my dreams had all come true. 

 I no longer had to play that the meadow 

 brook was a wilderness stream, for such a 

 river was at the very moment slipping beneath 

 the keel of our canoe, and as for moose call- 

 ing, why the guide the evening before had 

 fashioned a birch bark horn that he said would 



