JACK-O'-LANTERN 



they move into shallow water to spawn. 



The planets were not in happy conjunc- 

 tion till 19 — , when the last navigable water 

 and the Lake of the Long Blue Ones were 

 linked together by a chemin debarrasse. 

 A comfortable sort of road it sounds, this 

 chemin debarrasse, but all the considera- 

 tion it shows is for the canoe. Such 

 growth is cut, and only that, which would 

 block its passage. The line is chosen with- 

 out thought of footing; bog, windfall, un- 

 der-brush, are taken as they come; the ax 

 touches nothing that can possibly be 

 wormed through or straddled over; blazes 

 are rare enough to compel a watchful eye. 



It would have been quite too long a day, 

 for one member of the party at least, had 

 the carry begun at the door of our cabane, 

 but an old road offered dubious aid for 

 the first five miles. Once the well-travel- 

 led highway from the St. Lawrence to 

 Lake St. John ; now there be few, and they 

 of great faith, who hold it passable. Nature, 

 striving with unwearied persistence 

 to undo the work of men's hands, is within 

 a yery little of her final victory. The 

 horse wades a green channel narrowed and 

 shallowed with young trees and bushes at 

 bottom and sides; the wheels, sinking al- 

 155 



