150 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



were here all alone, and dropjoed asleep thinking 

 of it, and, being in a feverish state, you dreamed 

 that you saw — " 



" Mr. Murray," whispered John, hoarsely, inter- 

 rupting me, " for God's sake, look there [ " 



There was something in his voice, and in the 

 quick motion of his hand as he thrust it out 

 toward the lake, which startled me. Scarcely 

 knowing wdiy or wliat I was doing, I turned and 

 saw what was enough to quicken the hlood in 

 cooler veins than mine. Within a hundred feet 

 of the beach on wliicli I was then standing was 

 wdiat seemed at least to be a canoe, and in it a 

 form sat, bent slightly forward as in the act of 

 listening. A moment it sat thus, and then the 

 attitude became erect, and a face, as it were the 

 face of a girl inquinted on the air, looked directly 

 into mine. I neither spoke nor moved, but stood 

 steadfastly gazing at the apparition. I was not 

 frightened to bcAvilderment. All my faculties 

 seemed supernaturally acti^'e. I noted the form 

 of the canoe. It was as John had described it, — 

 curved up at either end, and delicately shaped. I 

 noticed the paddle, slender and polished ; the white 

 drapery, the shadowy face. I remembered after- 

 ward that the moonlight fell athwart the prow, as 

 it projected from the dark shadows of the pines 

 into the uninq)eded radiance. It may have been a 

 minute that the apparition faced us ; then, with a 



