oose, Harry," said Hamilton.

"Certainly not, my friend. If I were under the disagreeable necessity
of being anything but what I am, I should rather be something that is
not in the habit of being shot," replied the other, paddling with
renewed vigour in order to get rid of some of the superabundant spirits
that the beautiful scene and brilliant weather, acting on a young and
ardent nature, had called forth.

"Some of these same redskins," remarked the guide, "are not such bad
sort o' women, for all their ill looks. I've know'd more than one that
was a first-rate wife an' a good mother, though it's true they had
little edication beyond that o' the woods."

"No doubt of it," replied Harry, laughing gaily. "How shall I keep the
canoe's head, Jacques?"

"Right away for the p'int that lies jist between you an' the sun."

"Yes; I give them all credit for being excellent wives and mothers,
after a fashion," resumed Harry. "I've no wish to asperse the character
of the poor Indians; but you must know, Jacques, that they're very
different from the women that I allude to and of whom Scott sung. His
heroines were of a _very_ different stamp and colour!"

"Did he sing of niggers?" inquired Jacques simply.

"Of niggers!" shouted Harry, looking over his shoulder at Hamilton, with
a broad grin; "no, Jacques, not exactly of niggers--"

"Hist!" exclaimed the guide, with that peculiar, subdued energy that at
once indicates an unexpected discovery, and enjoins caution, while at
the same moment, by a deep, powerful back-stroke of his paddle, he
suddenly checked the rapid motion of the canoe.

Harry and his friend glanced quickly over their shoulders with a look of
surprise.

"What's in the wind now?" whispered the former.

"Stop paddling, masters, and look ahead at the rock yonder, jist under
the tall cliff. There's a bear a-sittin' there, an' if we can only get
to shore afore he sees us, we're sartin sure of him."

As the guide spoke he slowly edged the canoe towards the shore, while
the young men gazed with eager looks in the direction indicated, where
they beheld what appeared to be the decayed stump of an old tree or a
mass of brown rock. While they strained their eyes to see it more
clearly, the object altered its form and position.

"So it is," they exclaimed simultaneously, in a tone that was equivalent
to the remark, "Now we believe, because we see it."

In a few seconds the bow of the canoe touched the land,