nd of craft.

"Three feet in diameter, at least," replied Lucien; "and it should be of
that thickness for a length of nearly twenty feet. A less one would not
carry four of us."

"Then I am sure enough," responded Norman, "that we won't find such
timber here. I have seen no tree of that size either yesterday, or
while we were out this morning."

"Nor I," added Basil.

"I don't believe there's one," said Lucien.

"If we were in Louisiana," rejoined Francois, "I could find fifty
canoe-trees by walking as many yards. Why, I never saw such
insignificant timber as this here."

"You'll see smaller timber than this, Cousin Frank, before we reach the
end of our voyage."

This remark was made by Norman, who knew that, as they proceeded
northward, the trees would be found decreasing in size until they would
appear like garden shrubbery.

"But come," continued he, "if we can't build a craft to carry us from
_one_ tree, perhaps we can do it out of _three_."

"With three!" echoed Francois. "I should like to see a canoe made from
three trees! Is it a raft you mean, Cousin Norman?"

"No," responded the other; "a canoe, and one that will serve us for the
rest of our voyage."

All three--Basil, Lucien, and Francois--looked to their cousin for an
explanation.

"You would rather not go back up the river?" he inquired, glancing from
one to the other.

"We wish to go on--all of us," answered Basil, speaking for his brothers
as well.

"Very well," assented the young fur-trader; "I think it is better as you
wish it. Out of these trees I can build a boat that will carry us. It
will take us some days to do it, and some time to find the timber, but I
am tolerably certain it is to be found in these woods. To do the job
properly I want three kinds; two of them I can see from where I sit; the
third I expect will be got in the hills we saw this morning."

As Norman spoke he pointed to two trees that grew among many others not
far from the spot. These trees were of very different kinds, as was
easily told by their leaves and bark. The nearer and more conspicuous
of them at once excited the curiosity of the three Southerners. Lucien
recognised it from its botanical description. Even Basil and Francois,
though they had never seen it, as it is not to be found in the hot clime
of Louisiana, knew it from the accounts given of it by travellers. The
tree was the celebrated "canoe-birch," or, as Lucien named it,
"paper-birch