FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  
e fire, "you are not a half bad sort of a fellow." "Wallace," said be, "we'll have a pipeful of this every night until it is gone." "I'd try it, too," said Hubbard wistfully, "but I know it would make me sick, so I'll drink a little tea." After he had had his tea, he read to us the First Psalm. These readings from the Bible brought with them a feeling of indescribable comfort, and I fancy we all went to our blankets that night content to know that whatever was, was for the best. With the first signs of dawn we were up and had another pot of bone broth. Again the morning (October 12th) was crisp and beautiful, and the continuance of the good weather gave us new courage. While the others broke camp, I went on down the river bank in the hope of finding game, but when, after I had walked a mile, they overtook me with the canoe I had seen nothing. While boiling bones at noon, we industriously employed ourselves in removing the velvet skin from the antlers and singeing the hair off. In the afternoon we encountered more rapids. Once Hubbard relieved me at the stern paddle, but he was too weak to act quickly, and we had a narrow escape from being overturned. While making camp at night, George heard a whiskey jack calling, and he sneaked off into the brush and shot it. We reserved it as a dainty for breakfast. As we sat by the fire gnawing bones and chewing up scorched pieces of antlers, we again discussed the question as to whether we should stick to the canoe and run the river out to its mouth or abandon the canoe where we had entered the river. As usual George and I urged the former course. "When you're in the bush stick to your canoe as long as you can," said George; "that's always a good plan." But Hubbard was firm in the belief that we should take the route we knew, and renewed his argument about the possibility of getting windbound on Goose Bay, into which we thought the river flowed. Being windbound had for him especial terrors, due, I suppose, to his normally active nature. Another thing that inclined him towards taking the old trail was his strong faith that we should get trout in the outlet to Lake Elson, where we had such a successful fishing on the inbound journey. He argued, furthermore, that along what we then thought was the Nascaupee River we should be able to recover the provisions we had abandoned soon after plunging into the wild. "However," he said in closing, "we'll see how we f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
George
 

Hubbard

 

thought

 

windbound

 

antlers

 
gnawing
 
belief
 

scorched

 
dainty
 

reserved


pieces

 

discussed

 
question
 

chewing

 
entered
 

abandon

 
breakfast
 
terrors
 

journey

 

argued


inbound

 

fishing

 

outlet

 

successful

 

Nascaupee

 

However

 

closing

 

plunging

 

recover

 

provisions


abandoned

 
flowed
 

sneaked

 

especial

 

renewed

 
argument
 

possibility

 
suppose
 

taking

 
strong

inclined
 

active

 
nature
 
Another
 

comfort

 

indescribable

 
feeling
 

readings

 
brought
 

blankets