of the woods. Day after day, night after 

 night, the north wind blew down the lake; 

 fetching a sea from fifty miles away which 

 their small canoes were not able to master. 

 Provisions were very low. The daily ra- 

 tion was a tea-spoonful of flour drunk in a 

 pannikin of water. Game there was none; 

 strength waned ; starvation neared. On 

 the further side lay their iood-cdche. 

 Though the wind had not abated, someone 

 must try a forlorn venture. A canoe was 

 carried through the woods to the wind- 

 ward end of the narrows to make up some 

 of the leeway that would be lost in the ten- 

 mile crossing. At dawn it was launched, 



and all the long day T and another 



fought the wind and the sea. Only now and 

 then could they let the canoe fall ofif and 

 steal a dozen yards on their course, for the 

 breaking waves must be met squarely, or 

 the canoe be swamped. As night came 

 they found themselves sweeping helplessly 

 by the point they were striving to gain, — 

 past, and only a few hundred yards from it. 

 There was nothing left in them for a last 

 effort against the heavier and shifted wind. 

 In a black despair must they turn, or be 

 carried out to the lake's wide lower ex- 

 panse where a canoe could not live. Some- 

 185 



