THE CAPTAIN AND CREW. 25a 
Cn 

waves us a bon voyage, as we both dip together for the white 
caps just ahead, and the chain of lakes, with their inlets and 
outlets, their many brooks and clear little brooklets far be- 
yond. 
Good-bye Uncle Nat, we, too, since then have wished you 
bon voyage, and truly believe that when you landed from your 
last, years past, your spirit was welcomed upon the golden 
shore. 
Looking over our shoulder when a long way up the lake, 
we can see Uncle Nat leading the little gray over the hill to 
pasture for three weeks of freedom, while we are paddling 
away from civilization, unharnessed from business cares for the 
same length of time. Andon we move, but not any too fast to 
please us, as we have the wind nearly ahead. Dip, dip, we 
ply the paddles, keeping the nose of the birch bark canoe a 
little quartering to the waves, heading up as near as possible 
to make our point, which is the mouth of the inlet and the 
river. Often this is a hard pull, as today, with a pretty heavy 
sea. It is no time to swap jack knives when the waves are 
rolling lively; you must watch them and handle your frail 
craft accordingly. 
And she obeying like a well trained pony, feels the guiding 
hand, holds her head just right, is on the top of the large 
wave when it breaks, gliding down with it serenely, and then 
entirely escaping the next big one, heads up again for the 
daddy of them all, which she cannot escape; quick and lively 
now she goes, and balancing upon the very top, high above 
the little valleys all around, proudly bows her head to old 
boreas and all his threatenings, and gracefully settles down 
from over the big wave, and on steadily as before. 
We are now where the wind sweeps the lake with its greater 
