ATTEMPT TO REGAIN POSSESSION
XXXIII. WHERE IS BIM?
XXXIV. A BLAZE ON THE RIVER
XXXV. BIM'S HEROISM
XXXVI. THE MASTER OF MOSS BANK
XXXVII. BIM'S COON
XXXVIII. THE GREAT RIVER AND ITS MISCHIEF
XXXIX. HURLED THROUGH THE CREVASSE AND WRECKED
XL. A MEETING OF MATES

ILLUSTRATIONS.

"WINN DASHED AWAY WITH THE SPEED OF A DEER" . . . _Frontispiece_

"WINN SECURED ONE END OF THE CABLE TO THAT
PART OF THE BOOM RESTING AGAINST THE SNAG"

"'WHY, THE RAFT HAS GONE!' EXCLAIMED ELTA"

"'HOLD ON, YOUNG MAN! ONE AT A TIME IS ENOUGH'"

"A BROAD STREAM OF WHEAT RUSHED OUT ON DECK"

"'WATCH HIM, BIM!'"

"'WHO'S THERE?' CRIED THE OLD MAN"

"BILLY BRACKETT UTTERED A CRY OF AMAZEMENT"

WINN'S INTRODUCTION TO SABELLA

BILLY BRACKETT IS A FRIEND IN NEED

"THE MULE WAS PURCHASED THAT AFTERNOON"

"WITH A PRODIGIOUS LEAP HE LANDED SQUARELY ON REWARD'S HEAD"

"'THE RAFT HAS GONE, AND WE ARE AFTER IT'"

THE RESCUE OF SABELLA

"THE NEXT INSTANT HE SPRANG TO HIS FEET WITH A CRY"

"THE STRONG ARMS LIFTED HIM AS THEY WOULD A CHILD"

"LIKE YOUNG TIGERS THE BOYS TUGGED AT THE HEAVY SWEEPS"

"'YO' CALLIN' DAT AR PLANTASHUN MOSS BACK?' EXCLAIMED SOLON"

"THE LANTERNS OF THE WORKING GANG GLANCING HERE AND THERE
LIKE FIRE-FLIES"

A REUNION OF "MATES"

RAFT MATES.

CHAPTER I.

THE RAFT.

Although the _Venture_ was by no means so large a raft as many that
Winn Caspar had watched glide down the Mississippi, he considered it
about the finest craft of that description ever put together. He was
also a little more proud of it than of anything else in the whole
world. Of course he excepted his brave soldier father, who had gone to
the war as a private, to come home when it was all over wearing a
major's uniform; and his dear mother, who for four weary years had been
both father and mother to him, and his sister Elta, who was not only
the prettiest girl in the county, but, to Winn's mind, the cleverest.
But outside of his immediate family, the raft, the _Venture_, as his
father had named it, was the object of the boy's most sincere
admiration and pride. Had he not helped build it? Did he not know
every timber and plank and board in it? Had he not assisted in loading
it with enough bushels of wheat to feed an army? Was he not about to
leave home for the first time in his life, to float away down the great
river and