28 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



who had been a respectful and sympathetic listener, 

 assured him had none of the defects he had pointed 

 out. 



The immaculate stateroom was engaged, the boat 

 pushed off, the key was obtained, and lo and behold ! 

 if it had none of these specified defects, it had ano- 

 ther — one of the wooden supports, a huge bean?, 

 eighteen inches broad, passed directly up through 

 the foot of both the berths, reducing them to four 

 feet six inches in length. When Don made this 

 discovery his face was a study for his friends the 

 artists ; anger could not do justice to the occasion ; 

 des-pair, bewilderment, horror, astonishment, seemed 

 blended, with a lurking suspicion that the sympa- 

 thetic steward had been making game of him. He 

 rushed to the office, could find nothing of the stew- 

 ard, but was informed that all the other staterooms 

 were engaged. 



However, after sujjper, the officials relented and 

 gave us another room, enjoying mightily their joke, 

 as I always believed it to be, although Don never 

 could be brought to admit that they could by any 

 possibility have dared to make fun of him, and in- 

 sisted it was a blunder of that " stupid steward." 



"We reached Detroit by five o'clock of the follow- 

 ing morning, and as the boat for some wise reason 

 remained there till two iii the afternoon, we strolled 

 round the city. It is a promising place, and has the 

 finest street in the world, so the citizens assured us, 

 called Jefferson Avenue. The market was well sup- 

 plied with fish, and among them sturgeon, cut into 



