t through; in places the spray drove into his
face so that he could hardly see; but he held on with dogged
determination, trying to keep up with the others. With the exception of a
few hunting trips, his life had been smooth, and now, dressed mostly in
rags and aching in every limb, he smiled grimly as he remembered how he
had hitherto taken his pleasure. When he had shot partridges, he had, as
a rule, been driven to such stubble or turnip fields as lay at any
distance from his residence, and he had usually been provided with a pony
when he ascended the high moors in search of grouse. Money smoothed out
many small difficulties in the older land, but it was powerless in the
wilds of the new one, where one must depend on such things as native
courage, brute strength, and the capacity for dogged endurance, which are
common to all ranks of men. It was fortunate for Nasmyth that he
possessed them, but that, as he was discovering, is not quite enough.
They are great gifts in the raw, but, like most others, they need
exercise and assiduous cultivation for their full development.

On reaching the head of the rapid, they went back for another load, and
afterward Jake got into the canoe, while Lisle fixed the end of the
tracking-line about his shoulders. Aided by the line, the packer swung
the canoe across madly whirling eddies and in and out among foam-lapped
rocks, and now and then drove her, half hidden by the leaping froth, up
some tumultuous rush. At times Lisle, wading waist-deep and dragged
almost off his feet, barely held her stationary--Nasmyth could see his
chest heave and his face grow darkly flushed--but in another instant they
were going on again. That a craft could be propelled up any part of the
rapid would, Nasmyth thought, have appeared absolutely incredible to any
one who had not seen it done.

At last, however, the task became too hard for them and after dragging
her out they carried her, upside down, in turn. It was difficult for them
to see where they were going, and the craft, made from a hollowed log,
was by no means so well fitted for the work as the bark or canvas canoe
of the more eastern wilds. She was comparatively heavy, and their heads
and shoulders were inside of her. Once or twice the portager fell; and
the fall is an awkward one, as it is impossible to break it with one's
hands, which are occupied in holding the canoe. Still, they made
progress, and, launching again above the rapid, they reached a