ear," said
Rob.

"Poor, poor Tommy! Oh dear! oh dear!" cried Tony. "Why did he go and
do it!"

"It will be sad news at home," said Rob. "I am thankful that it wasn't
you, Tony; but I had rather it had been anybody but Tommy."

"Don't let us give up, then," said Tony. "May be he's farther down the
stream. I won't believe that he's dead till I see him dead."

Strive to the last. That is a good principle. It was one Tony held to,
young as he was. They slowly paddled down the stream, looking about
them as before. There was a small island some way down like the one
above the falls. They paddled up to it, and were going round it, when a
log of timber was seen caught in the branches of a tree, which had been
blown down, and hung into the water. On the inner end sat Tommy,
clinging to the bough above his head. He still seemed too much scared
to know exactly what he was about. When his friends shouted his name,
he only answered, "Yes; here I am." Tony, in his joy at getting him
back alive, gave him a hug which nearly again upset the canoe. Tommy
seemed scarcely to know what had happened, and thought that he was still
on the island above the falls. It seemed that he had got hold of the
log as it was floating by, and that he was carried with it over the
falls, and thus his life was saved. The three lads now paddled on till,
just at dark, they reached Roland's shanty, as it was called.

Roland, an old Scotchman, was an oddity. He called his shanty the White
Stag Hotel; and had, chalked up on a board, a figure, under which he had
written "The White Stag. Accommodation for man and beast." Except,
however, a gallon of whiskey, a jar of beef-tallow, and some Indian-corn
bread, he had nothing to set before his guests. The bread and tallow
was washed down with burnt-crust coffee, as they did not touch the
whiskey. "I ken ye'd be glad o' that if ye was lost in the woods," he
said, when he saw the faces of the lads. "What mair can ye want? Dry
your clothes, and then there are your beds for ye." He pointed to a
heap of spruce fir tops, in a corner of the hut. Though the food was
coarse, and their beds rough, the lads slept soundly. They had food of
their own, but they wished to husband that for the woods, where they
might get none.

Leaving the canoe under charge of Roland, the next morning they began
their tramp through the forest. The trees were blazed, and there was a
beaten track all the way. They wer