p near Columbus, Kentucky. At this point the owner
of Moss Bank bade his new-made friends _au revoir_, and started by rail
for his Louisiana home.

After his departure, and during the month of drifting that followed,
the raftmates talked so much of Moss Bank, and listened to so many
stories concerning it from Solon, that to their minds it grew to be the
objective point of their trip, and seemed as though it must be the one
place towards which their whole voyage was tending. Much as they
anticipated the reaching of this far-southern plantation, however, they
would have been greatly surprised and decidedly incredulous had any one
told them that it was indeed to mark the limit of their voyage, and
that there the good raft _Venture_, from Wisconsin for New Orleans, was
destined to vanish, and become but a fading memory. But so it was, as
they found out, and as we shall see.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

BIM'S 'COON.

Through the last week of November and the first three of December our
raftmates drifted steadily southward down the great river. Although it
was the most unpleasant season of the year, and they encountered both
cold rains and bitter winds that chilled them to the marrow, the boys
thoroughly enjoyed their experience. They could always retreat to the
"shanty," which Solon kept well filled with warmth and comfort, and
they had the satisfaction of an uninterrupted progress. The management
of the raft called for a vast amount of hard and monotonous work; but
it gave them splendid muscles and tremendous appetites. They were
obliged to maintain a constant lookout for bars, reefs, snags, and
up-bound river craft, and by means of the long sweeps at either end of
the raft head it this way or that to avoid these obstacles and keep the
channel. They were always on the move from sunrise to sunset, and
generally travelled on moonlit nights as well. If the night promised
to be dark or stormy they tied up at the nearest bank.

At such times the outside blackness, the howling wind, driving
rain-squalls, and dashing waves only heightened the interior cosiness,
the light, warmth, and general comfort of their floating home. In it
they played games, sang songs to the accompaniment of Solon's banjo,
told stories, taught the dogs tricks; or, under Billy Brackett's
direction, pegged away at engineering problems, such as are constantly
arising in the course of railway construction. Even Winn tried his
hand at these; for unde