WHY 1 GO THERE. 13 



ing, as he plainly expressed it, that he would " die 

 on his hands." At last another guide was pre- 

 vailed upon to serve him, not so much for the 

 money, as he afterwards told me, but because he 

 pitied the young man, and felt that " one so near 

 death as he was should be gratified even in his 

 whims." 



The boat was half filled with cedar, pine, and 

 balsam boughs, and the young man, carried in the 

 arms of his guide from the house, was laid at full 

 length upon them. The camp utensils w^ere put 

 at one end, the guide seated himself at the other, 

 and the little boat passed with the living and the 

 dying do'svn the lake, and was lost to the group 

 w^atching them amid the islands to the south. 

 This was in early June. The first week the guide 

 carried the young man on his back over all the 

 portages, lifting him in and out of the boat as he 

 might a child. But the healing properties of the 

 balsam and pine, which were his bed by day and 

 night, began to exert their power. Awake or 

 asleep, he inhaled their fragrance. Their pungent 

 and healing odors penetrated his diseased and 

 irritated lungs. The second day out his cough 

 was less sharp and painful. At the end of the 

 first week he could walk by leaning on the pad- 

 dle. The second week he needed no support. 

 The third week the cough ceased entirely. From 

 that time he improved with wonderful rapidity. 



