up the Mississippi, hove into sight.

"Now, we'll get some big swells," remarked Sam, and he was right.
Soon the houseboat began to rock in a fashion that pleased the boys,
but alarmed the girls.

"When the houseboat rocks like that, I'm always afraid we'll be
swamped," said Grace.

"There is little danger of that," said Captain Starr. "The wash would
have to be much heavier before it could do any damage."

The morning passed pleasantly enough. The ladies spent the time over
their fancy work, while the girls and boys read, played games and
also sang and played. There was a piano on the _Dora_, and the boys
had a guitar and a banjo along.

They were at dinner and discussing their next stopping place, when,
without warning, there came a shock that threw Aleck flat on the
floor, with a trayful of cup-custards over him.

"Fo' de lan' sake!" gasped the colored man. "Has we struck a stone wall?"

"Whow!" ejaculated Fred, who had had some hot coffee spilled on his
knee. "This isn't pleasant, I can tell you."

Dick was already running on deck, and the others followed. They saw
that Captain Starr's face was full of concern. Not another craft of
any kind was in sight, and they were a good two hundred feet from shore.

"Didn't we strike something, Captain?" asked the eldest Rover.

"Reckon we did, sir," was the answer.

"What?"

"A sunken tree, most likely. They are the worst things to be met with
on the Mississippi. More than one boat has been sunk by a hidden tree
trunk."

"Did the snag poke a hole into us?" asked Tom. "If it did, we had
better make for shore."

"I'll look around and see," said the captain, and did so, accompanied
by the boys and Aleck. For the time being, dinner was forgotten.

Fortunately, no great damage had been done. One side board had been
loosened, but this was easily nailed tight, and then the houseboat
proceeded on her way as before.

"I've heard of boats being wrecked by these snags," said Songbird.

"One boat I was on, some fifteen years ago, was wrecked that way,"
said Captain Starr. "She was running at full speed, when we struck
a big tree that had rather a sharp point. The point ran through into
the cabin and killed two people, and the boat sank in ten minutes."

"Excuse me from such a disaster as that," was Fred's comment, while
Nellie, who had heard the story, shuddered.

That evening, they tied up close to the village of Canston. Not far
south was a large plantation, empl