rymen came so near to losing it beneath the edge of the
tomahawk.

In the midst of our meal we came so close under the heights of
Pittsburg that I had need to leave the table to take advantage of a
slant in the current which would bring us shoreward. Before the others
joined me, I had the boat fast alongside the warehouse wharf where I
hoped to find the chest of clothes I had sent on from Washington. My
expectations were not of the firmest, for I knew the Cumberland Pike to
be quite as miry as the Philadelphia road. It had been, indeed, a close
shave, for on inquiring of the warehouse keeper, I learned that my box
had come down from Redstone by skiff only the previous evening.

We had no letters to deliver in Pittsburg, and no desire either to wade
the unpaved streets or to linger beneath a sky whose shower of soot bore
out only too well the boast of the townsfolk that good coal could be
bought in their streets at five cents a bushel. For my part, I would
prefer to pay more for wood fires, and escape the smearing of house and
garments with lampblack. However, the residents may consider this
inconvenience offset by their numerous social and cultural advantages,
which are unequalled among all our trans-Alleghany towns, unless it may
be at Lexington or Cincinnati.

As we put off again into the stream, I pointed out the site of Fort
Pitt, built by the British to replace the French Fort Duquesne. But a
storm cloud drove down over the Pittsburg hills, and Alisanda hastened
to withdraw with her uncle into the cabin to escape the April rain which
soon poured upon us in torrents. It was not, as I had hoped, a mere
squall. With the passing of the first roaring wind gusts that rocked
our heavy craft, the rain settled into a steady drizzle, which obscured
river and banks for the rest of the afternoon, and sheeted us in like a
black pall throughout the night.

With the nightfall, trusting to the height of the flood to carry us over
all shoals and rocks, I made no attempt to effect a landing or to tie up
to the half-submerged willows along the bank. We had wood enough aboard
to last for three days or more, and our fireplace, with its pots and
ranger, saved the necessity of a shore camp to prepare food.

As there was no call for Don Pedro to suffer a needless wetting, I
argued that I could not trust him on watch so dark a night,--which was
no more than the truth of the matter. My supper was brought to me in the
prow by Chita, and