e fur boat above.

"Uncle Joe!" said his niece. "You know something!"

"God help the man that don't!" snorted her uncle. "Look there!"

A heavily loaded Mackinaw boat had shot around the next bend. It was of
large size, nearly fifty feet long and a dozen wide. In the bow were
four men at the great oars and in the stern at the tiller was the
_patron_, singing in lusty and not unpleasant voice and in mixed French
and English, a song of his own composing.

Patience put a finger to her lips and enjoined silence, leaning forward
to catch the words floating across the turbulent water, and to her they
sounded thus:

_"Mon pere Baptiste for Pierre Chouteau
He work lak dam in le ol' bateau;
From Union down le ol' Missou
Lak chased, by gar, by carcajou._

_"Le coureurs des bois, le voyageur, too,
He nevaire work so hard, mon Dieu,
Lak Baptiste pere an' Baptiste fils,
Coureurs avant on le ol' Missou._

_"McKenzie say: 'Baptiste Ladeaux,
Thees lettaire you mus' geeve Chouteau;
Vous are one dam fine voyageur--
So hurry down le ol' Missou._

_"Go get vous fils an' vous chapeau,
You mebby lak Mackinaw bateau'--
Lak that he say, lak one dam day
Le voyage weel tak to ol' St. Lou!"_

As the square stern of the fur-laden boat came opposite the packet the
mercurial _patron_ stopped his song and shouted: "_Levez les perches!_"
and the four oars rose from the water and shot into the air, vertical
and rigid. The pilot of the steamboat, chancing to be in the pilot
house, blew a series of short blasts in recognition, causing the
engineer to growl something about wasting his steam. The crew of the
Mackinaw boat arose and cheered, the _patron_ firing his pistol into the
air. Gay vocal exchanges took place between the two boats, and the
patron, catching sight of Patience, placed a hand over his heart and
bowed, rattling off habitant French. She waved in reply and watched the
boat forge ahead under the thrust of the perfectly timed oars.

"Mackinaw boat," said Tom, "and in a hurry. _There's_ the express. There
is a belief on the river that the square stern of those boats gives them
a speed in rapids greater than that of the current. They are very safe
and handy for this kind of navigation, and well built by skilled
artisans at the boat yards of the principal trading posts up the river.
They are a great advance over the bullboat, which preceded them."

"And which are s