"Come, what did the Latin writer say about a man defending his own
country?"
"`_Dulce et decorum est_--'" I said, promptly, and then stopped short.
"I forget the rest, father."
He laughed.
"Our life out here, as the pioneers of a new civilisation, is not
conducive to the study of the classics, my boy. It's a rough school,
where we have to take care to avoid fevers, and meet Indians, and are
threatened with Spanish aggression, and have to fight for our lives
against a flood. But there, we have drifted into a very serious talk."
"But I like it, father," I said eagerly, "though I am ashamed to have
forgotten my Latin."
"Ah, well, you will look that passage up in your Horace, and I venture
to say that it will be so impressed now upon your memory that it will
never slip away. There, I mentioned the flood. Flood suggests boat.
You said you thought the boat might have been carried up the stream into
the woods somewhere."
"Yes," I said; "the water did come out of the big river and rush up
ours."
"It is quite probable. You may find it as you say you did the hut.
When are you going to search for it?"
"When you give me leave."
"Go when you like. I did think I should have to go again to-morrow to
the settlement to confer with the General and the others, but messages
have again been sent back to the Spanish Governor of Florida, and it
must be many days, perhaps weeks, before we hear again, so you can go
to-morrow if you will."