wimmers we determined to trust to our
own arms and legs for getting to the other side. After some persuasion
we induced the horse to go in; and then, Mike taking the rein, we each
of us put a hand on the saddle and swam over, I on one side and Mike on
the other. Though swept down for some distance, we got safe on shore at
last, but we had to trudge on in our wet clothes. Not only were we wet,
but so was our imperfectly dried meat; the consequence was, that when we
came to cook it in the evening it was scarcely eatable. Our clothes,
too, were damp when we lay down at night.

I awoke shivering the next morning, though the fire was still blazing
near me; and when I tried to get up I was unable to stand. Mike was in
a state of great distress. The remainder of our provisions had become
worse; but even had the food been of the most delicate description, I
could not have touched it.

Mike, faithful fellow that he was, immediately set to work to build a
hut, so that I might be sheltered from the heat of the sun as well as
from the wind. As soon as it was completed he carried me into it, and
closing the entrance, said he would set out in search of food. In a
short time he returned with some delicious strawberries, which greatly
refreshed me.

For several days he tended me with the greatest care, and was fortunate
in trapping several young birds, which, though not very fat, served to
restore my strength. I asked him how he had managed to eat the dried
bear's meat, being very sure that he had not touched any of the birds he
had caught.

"Bedad, Masther Roger, it's not the mate at all I've been ateing," he
answered. "I found no lack of big fellows with four legs hopping about
in the marsh down there, and, for want of better food, I took the
liberty of cooking them. They are not so bad, afther all; only the idea
of the thing was not plisant at first."

Mike had been living on frogs, I found out, during all my illness; and
as for a whole day he was unable to catch any birds, I begged that he
would let me taste the frogs. I confess that I had no reason to
complain of the food, for he gave me the hinder legs alone, which I
should have supposed to have been those of small birds, had he not told
me what they were.

I was at last strong enough to move about, and I proposed that we should
at once continue our journey. Mike agreed, therefore, that we should
start the next morning.

When daylight arrived, he left the hu