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We've run a dozen or twenty a lot worse than this one. Not even the Parle Pas hurt us. Then I come in here, head paddler, and I run my boat on a 'sweeper' in a little bit of an easy drop like this. It makes me feel pretty bad, I'll tell you that!"
The change of paddlers brought Anthony to the place of bow paddler in the third canoe. "Now you'll see some real paddling," was his gracious remark when he took the seat the Monkey had vacated in his favor. "Look out you don't run over any snags," cautioned the Monkey. "There are some sharp stumps under the surface of the water and they're ugly customers."
Having obtained permission they took a canoe and went for a paddle on the quiet lake. Mary, like all other Indians, was passionately fond of the water, and in spite of her crooked back was a strong and skillful paddler. The children were placed in the center of the canoe, on a fur rug, while Mary seated herself in the stern and paddled them over the beautiful sunlit waves.
Thus a new-born harp is a "puppy," then a "white coat"; when it is old enough to take to the water, which is within a fortnight after birth, it becomes a "paddler," a little later a "bedlamer," then a "young harp" and finally a harp. The handsomest of them all is the "ranger," as the young doter is called.
"Maybe one of us could go with you," suggested Bart. "The canoe will hold three on a pinch." "I think it would be a good plan," Frank replied. "Then I'll go," Bart went on. The other boys did not dispute his right, as he was the best paddler. It seemed that the time would never come for the attempt to be made.
"Then she's dead no hope of anything else. Only an expert could hope to take her through, and there's nothing to live on Back There. What's the use of trying to follow ?" Neilson straightened, his eyes searching Ray's. "She's got food, I suppose. And she's got an expert paddler to take her there." Ray's face seemed to darken before his eyes.
But a more immediate menace seemed only to have awaited the actual moment of embarkation, when, as we were pushing off, the rhythmical plash and swish of a paddle fell suddenly upon our ears, and we clutched the bank while a canoe shot down-stream within a length of us. Luckily the night was as dark as ever, and all we saw of the paddler was a white shirt fluttering as it passed.
All would have gone on well, were it not that my paddler made such clumsy work that the water spattered, and showered down upon us without ceasing. Continuing to ply his tool, however, quite energetically, I thought he would improve after a while, and so let him alone.
They, like the rest of their countrymen, appeared to be of a mild and agreeable disposition. The boats, if they could be so-called, were perfect novelties to the voyagers. They consisted of two large inflated skins fixed side by side, with a board on the top of them, on which the paddler sat, carrying his merchandise. They are known as balsas.
This hole is surrounded by a strip of wood, which prevents water washing into the canoe, and serves as a ledge over which the Eskimo fastens his sealskin coat. As canoe and coat are waterproof, the paddler is kept dry, even in rough weather, and these cockle-shell craft will ride on a sea that would swamp an open boat.
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