trees, which shoot up so thick an' close on
either bank, but I've heard that it ain't really a river, jest the
stream o' water pourin' out o' them mighty lakes to the north into them
lakes to the south, which ain't so mighty as the others, but which are
mighty anyhow."

"It's true," said Paul. "All of this is lake water which runs through
the other lakes, too, and then out by a tremendous big river, hundreds
of miles to the Atlantic Ocean."

"When God made this chain uv lakes an' rivers he done one uv his biggest
an' finest jobs," said Tom Ross reverentially.

They moved on their course slowly but steadily. Once they saw a canoe
near the further shore, containing a lone occupant.

"It's a squaw," said Shif'less Sol, "an' she's pulled in near the land
so she kin jump an' run ef we make for her."

"Like ez not she thinks we're hunters or French from the fort," said
Long Jim.

"At any rate, we'll soon leave her far behind," said Henry.

The breeze stiffened and she quickly dropped out of sight. Nor did they
see any other human being that day. At night they anchored close
inshore, among bushes and reeds, where they remained undisturbed until
the morning. The remainder of the journey down the river passed in the
same peace and ease, and then Paul, who was in the prow, caught a
glimpse of a broad expanse which looked silvery white in the distance.

"The lake! the lake!" he cried eagerly.

They swept triumphantly over the last reach of the river and out upon
the broad bosom of Lake Erie. In their earlier voyage down the
Mississippi they had learned how to use a sail, and now when they were
about a mile from land they took in the sail and looked about them.

The great inland fresh water seas of North America aroused the greatest
interest, even awe, among the earlier explorers, and there was not one
among the five who did not look with eager eyes upon the ocean of
waters. They were better informed, too, than the average woodsman
concerning the size and shape of this mighty chain.

"You look west and you look south an' you don't see nothin' but water,"
said Long Jim.

"And they say that the whole grand chain is fifteen hundred miles long,"
said Paul, "and that Lake Superior reaches a width of three hundred
miles."

"It's a lot o' water," said Shif'less Sol, trailing his hand over the
side, "an' while I'd like to explore it, I guess that the sooner we
cross it the better it will be for what we're tryin' to do."