ravelled in company with me once. We were
goin' just as we are now, Mr Charles, two canoes of us--him and a
comrade in one, and me and a comrade in t'other. One night we got to a
lot o' rapids that came one after another for the matter o' three miles
or thereabouts. They were all easy ones, however, except the last; but
it _was_ a tickler, with a sharp turn o' the land that hid it from sight
till ye were right into it, with a foamin' current, and a range o'
ragged rocks that stood straight in front o' ye, like the teeth of a
cross-cut saw. It was easy enough, however, if a man _knew_ it, and was
a cool hand. Well, the _pauvre_ Canadian was in a terrible takin' about
this shoot long afore he came to it. He had run it often enough in
boats where he was one of a half-dozen men, and had nothin' to do but
look on; but he had never _steered_ down it before. When he came to the
top o' the rapids, his mind was so filled with this shoot that he
couldn't attend to nothin', and scraped agin' a dozen rocks in almost
smooth water, so that when he got little more than half-way down, the
canoe was as rickety as if it had just come off a six months' cruise.
At last we came to the big rapid, and after we'd run down our canoe I
climbed the bank to see them do it. Down they came, the poor Canadian
white as a sheet, and his comrade, who was brave enough, but knew
nothin' about light craft, not very comfortable. At first he could see
nothin' for the point, but in another moment round they went, end on,
for the big rocks. The Canadian gave a great yell when he saw them, and
plunged at the paddle till I thought he'd have capsized altogether.
They ran it well enough, straight between the rocks (more by good luck
than good guidance), and sloped down to the smooth water below; but the
canoe had got such a battering in the rapids above, where an Injin baby
could have steered it in safety, that the last plunge shook it all to
pieces. It opened up, and lay down flat on the water; while the two men
fell right through the bottom, screechin' like mad, and rolling about
among shreds o' birch-bark!"

While Jacques was thus descanting philosophically on his experiences in
time past, they had approached the head of the second rapid, and in
accordance with the principles just enunciated, the stout backwoodsman
gave his undivided attention to the work before him. The rapid was
short and deep, so that little care was required in descending it,
ex