nge
craft excited a good deal of interest all along the route.

When our party came on deck the next morning, they found the steamers
in the canal basin at Chicago. We had made the trip in thirty-four
hours, and had not touched bottom once, so far as I knew. The fleet had
stopped only long enough to change horses at any place. We got the
boats alongside, and sent our party on the way to the hotels, for the
odor of the basin was not that of ottar of roses.

The engineers went to work on the propellers first, and after resorting
to various expedients, we got them in place. Steam was up by this time,
and we towed the canal boats down to a point near the lake. It required
the whole day to restore our anchors, cables, and ballast to their
places, rig the spars, and bend on the sails. By six o'clock we were in
as good condition as when we entered the Mississippi at the Balize.

We had hardly finished the work before Mr. and Mrs. Brickland came on
board. They were delighted to see us, and both of them wept when they
realized that Moses and I were alive, well and happy, after our long
voyage. I had sent for our passengers, and when they came on board, I
introduced my foster father and mother to them; and the old people were
very pleasantly received.

They welcomed my father as one who had come from the other world, for
Mr. Brickland declared he had been unable to realize that he was still
alive, though I had written them to that effect. My father insisted
upon resigning the best state-room to them, though I had intended to
give up my room, while Washburn and I divided the nights between us in
the fore-cabin.

At dark we were under way, and fortunately we had smooth water, so that
Mrs. Shepard had no cause to complain of the lake. At Mackinaw we
stopped a day to give the party an opportunity to pull in some of the
famous trout of that locality. Off Thunder Bay, where I had once
weathered a gale in the Lake Bird, there was a considerable stirring up
of the waters, and Mrs. Shepard declared that it was worse than the
broad Atlantic; but the last was always the worst to her. She was
delighted with St. Clair River, when we passed through it the next day.
We crossed the Flats by the canal, and stood over to Glinten River. The
region looked very natural to us, after our long absence. In the middle
of the afternoon, we made a landing at the wharf back of Mr.
Brickland's house.

A considerable crowd had gathered on the pier, for