and we should very soon have had the water rushing in.
We had, therefore, to look out for some opening into which we could
slowly paddle till we found a landing-place. After making two or three
ineffectual attempts, we succeeded in finding a bank with an almost
perpendicular side, on to which we could at once step from the canoe.

Immediately after landing, all hands set to work to collect wood for a
fire. An abundance lay on the ground, driven there by the wind. Lily
and Dora undertook to cook the breakfast, the materials for which
consisted of eggs, fish, maize cakes, and dandelion coffee--the roots
having been prepared by Aunt Hannah. We soon had a fire blazing up,
when, as Uncle Mark declared, Lily and Dora performed their duties in a
most efficient manner.

Just as we had finished, one of the men, who were seated at some little
distance from us, started up, exclaiming, "Take care! take care! there
are rattlesnakes near us."

Scarcely had he spoken when I saw one of the venomous creatures, the
sound of whose tail the man had heard, rearing its head not five feet
off from Lily. In another moment it might spring on her. Fortunately a
long thin stick lay close to me, which I seized, and with all my might
struck the snake a blow on the head which brought it to the ground,
while I cried out to Lily to run to a distance. Almost in an instant
the snake recovered itself, and sounding its rattle as it moved forward,
made an attempt to spring at me. Again I struck it; and Mike coming to
my assistance, it was quickly despatched.

Where one rattlesnake is found, there are generally many more. Scarcely
two minutes had passed ere another made its appearance, crawling out of
a hole under a tree. While Mike and Reuben went to attack it, Uncle
Mark advised that we should all get on board without delay. Our
breakfast and cooking things were quickly packed up; and the second
rattlesnake being destroyed, Mike and Reuben followed us into the canoe.
Scarcely had we shoved off when three or four more rattlesnakes were
seen, and we felt thankful that none of us had been bitten by them. We
had literally encamped in the midst of a colony of the venomous
reptiles.

We had to exercise the same caution in going out of the harbour as on
entering it; after which we continued our course to the eastward at a
moderate distance from the shore.

"The day was, Masther Roger, when you and I would have been very happy
to have fallen i