ill show you. I promise you I will have all the food you want at
this place in ten days."

[Sidenote: STARVATION]

He got on the raft with Captain Ogden, an Indian boy and Martin, who had
been over the river before. They poled and paddled it to the middle of
the river, and drifted down the stream out of sight.

The next day two more men crept into camp and reported that the Indians
had attacked their party several days before, and had killed Lieutenant
Turner of the Rangers, Lieutenant Dunbar of Gage's light infantry, and
that of all their party they alone had escaped.

It was horrible to see the wild, haggard men stagger in, and to witness
their despair when they received nothing to eat but such lily-roots and
ground-nuts as we could find and boil. There was but little nourishment
in them.

Ben Bradley left camp with three companions. They put on their packs.
Ben looked at his compass, and said:--

"Good-by, boys. In three days we shall be at home."

They were never afterward seen alive. Several years later some hunters
from the Merrimac found a skeleton in the White Mountains. They knew it
was Bradley's from the hair, and the peculiar leather strap with which
his cue was tied.

After Rogers had been gone three days, I said to Edmund:--

"I can't stand this any longer. This place is like a mad-house. We shall
go crazy if we stay here. Let us get some logs, make a raft, and drift
down the river."

We talked it over that afternoon, and the next morning began building a
raft. It was a rickety little affair. We finished it in one day, but
were so feeble that we found it hard work. We cut a couple of saplings
for poles, and took some wood, from which we whittled a couple of
paddles.

One of the men, who had been over the river before, said:--

"Look out for a waterfall and rapids, some twenty miles down, boys.
Don't get carried over them, or you'll be lost. And there's another bad
fall and rapids below that."

We poled the raft into the current, and let it drift. Toward night we
paddled to the shore and camped there.

[Sidenote: THE RAFT IS LOST]

In the morning we shot a squirrel, and during the day got another.
Toward evening we heard the sound of the falls, and poled to the shore.
The night was cold. We had no shelter. It rained heavily. We were
drenched and almost frozen. In the morning our little strength was gone.
We got on our raft, and poled it along till we were close to the falls;
and then put