of Concordia
Parish was flooded, and but for the forest trees rising from the water,
the boys would have thought themselves afloat on a vast inland sea.
The low bluffs on which the capital of Louisiana is seated, and beyond
which the cane lands extend in almost a dead level to the Gulf, were
occupied by the tents and rude shelters of hundreds of refugees from
the drowned districts. Here our raftmates began to entertain fears for
the safety of their friends at the Moss Bank plantation, which lay but
a day's journey farther down the river.

At Baton Rouge they cleared the raft of its living encumbrances, and
then pushed ahead. From this point to the Gulf the great river is
enclosed between massive levees, or embankments of earth, behind which
the level of the far-reaching cane-fields is much lower than the
surface of high-water. Thus the raft was borne swiftly along at such
an elevation that its crew could look over the top of the eastern levee
and down over a vast area of plantation lands. These were dotted with
dark clumps of live-oaks or magnolias, and at wide intervals with
little settlements of whitewashed negro quarters, grouped behind the
broad-verandaed dwellings of the planters. Near each was the mill in
which the cane from the broad fields was crushed and its sweet juices
converted into sugar. These mills were surmounted by tall iron
smoke-stacks, and near each stood the square, tower-like bagasse
(refuse) burner, built of stone, and looking like the keep of some
ancient castle.

All along the levee they saw gangs of men at work strengthening the
embankments and raising them still higher. They were often hailed and
asked to lend assistance, but they felt that their own friends might be
in need of them, and so passed on without answer. So changed was the
aspect of the country since Solon had last seen it, and so excited did
the old man become as he neared the scenes of former years, that it was
evident he could not be depended upon to recognize Moss Bank when they
should reach it.

The day was nearly spent before they arrived at what they felt sure
must be its immediate vicinity. They had decided to tie up at the
first good place, and there wait for morning, when Winn called out:

"What is that just ahead? I thought it was a log; but it seems to be
moving towards us, and I believe it is some sort of a small boat with a
man in it."

The object to which their attention was thus directed proved to be