the pleasure of so doing was
thereby allotted to him. He secured a log, to prevent any accident,
straddled it, and in due time reached the canoe and brought it over to
us. The carrying capacity of the vessel was limited, and, in fact, it
was doubtful whether all three could cross in her at once, but we
decided to try it.

Miller was fussy and nervous, as he had had no experience in canoe
navigation, and this particular canoe did not have an appearance
calculated to inspire confidence in one unused to boats and afraid of
the water.

We drew the boat along the bank to a low place, where Rummel and I
seated ourselves carefully in the canoe, instructing Miller how to enter
and sit down without upsetting our calculations and ourselves, but he
was too painstaking and careful. He got both feet into the canoe, but
that was all. In being exceedingly careful to place his feet in the
proper place he forgot about the perpendicular necessities of the case,
and about the time his second foot touched the bottom of the boat his
head struck the water.

We reached the bank in safety, pulling Miller after us, but the canoe
was then a good distance away.

All desire to censure poor Miller for his awkwardness passed away, as he
ruefully asked:

"How in thunder do you expect a man to walk a tight-rope in the dark?"

Remembrances of our own first attempt to keep a canoe under us came to
our minds, and the tone in which our friend spoke caused a convulsion of
laughter which threatened to betray our presence to any persons within
rifle range.

We now drew off to a safe place and built a fire to dry our clothes, a
few of our matches, that were in a safe place, not having been entirely
ruined.

After we had thoroughly dried out, we recollected our pigeons, and
concluded to go back and gather in a few for a feast. It was no trouble
to locate them, as they were still keeping up their clatter in a jerky
sort of way, partially quieting down for a few minutes and then breaking
out again as some disquieted bird would sound a new alarm. The
difficulty was to catch some, and we exhausted our ingenuity, patience
and vocabulary without being able to bag a pigeon, even though the trees
and bushes were fairly loaded with them. Dark as it was, they seemed to
see us before we could see them, and would fly away just in time to
avoid us, with a total absence of regard for our feelings in the matter.

As the day dawned it turned colder, and a breeze