professor is just like a boy here.
He cut saplings for tent-poles, and showed me how to make the pins, and
fasten down the canvas, then we built a nice little fire, and put our
camp-stove over it. It is nothing but a big piece of stove-pipe, I
should think, with a griddle on top, but works first-rate; and then we
got supper together. You ought to see his camp-chest, Sara! It isn't
much bigger than that old desk Miss Prue gave you, but it has everything
in it, I should think; and there isn't an inch of waste room. I found
everything I needed to set the table with, and we had canned things, and
biscuit and cheese and coffee, and lots of nice things to eat. Then I
washed the dishes (I'm real glad now, that I learned at home, for the
professor said I did it as neatly as a girl), and then he went off,
poking around with his hammer, and I fished. You don't know much about
fishing with a jack-light, do you? It's good fun. I caught enough for
breakfast, nice little perch they were, and then we lay down on our
blankets, stretched over pine-boughs in the tent, with mosquito-netting
over all the openings, and slept like two tops.
Yesterday we had lots of adventures. First thing, I woke up just in time
to save our provisions from some hogs which had smelled us out, and came
down on us in a regular drove; and they got us so wide awake we
concluded to stay up, though it wasn't really morning yet. But you don't
know how good our fried fish did taste! I ate till I was ashamed, and
then finished the bits in the spider; and I could have eaten as many
more, I guess. Then I cleared everything up ready to break camp, while
the professor went off again, and then he came back, and we embarked.
This was about six bells, I think. We hadn't gone more than two knots
when the boat began to slip along so easy and fast I couldn't understand
it, till the professor sung out,--
"We're coming to a dam! Put her about, quick!"
Then he grabbed the oars and rowed with all his might for shore. It
seemed at first as if we would be swept along in spite of ourselves; but
he's got more strength in his arms than I'd thought for, and then,
luckily, a great tree had fallen clear out into the stream, which I
reached for. I threw myself almost out of the boat, just holding by the
toes, and caught hold of a little twig, then a stronger one, and pulled
the boat an inch at a time till we were safe alongside in a perfect
little haven. Then the professor dropped the oars, took off his helmet,
and wiped his face, for he was dreadfully warm; but he only said,--
"That was a little close, Morton; now we'll have to make a portage."
Well, that wasn't so much fun. I hadn't thought, before, we had one
thing more than we needed, but now it seemed as if we had a thousand.
Sara, it took us four hours to make that portage, and my back hasn't got
over aching yet!
We managed to get two men to help us with the boat, but that was only a
small lift, it seemed to me; and I was glad enough when the professor
said we'd take a rest before we went on. But the dinner braced us up a
good deal; one thing we had was some roasted green corn one of the men
told us to pick in his field, and it was awfully good, but not up to the
fish. Then I stayed to watch camp while the professor went hunting for
more stones and things, and then I had the biggest adventure of all. But
I'll have to tell you about that in my next letter, if I come across any
paper, for this is all I've got.