[Illustration:
“DON’T THINK FOR A MOMENT OF GETTING ANY OTHER CANOE.” [P. 12. ]
THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB
BY W. L. ALDEN
AUTHOR OF
“THE MORAL PIRATES” “THE CRUISE OF THE ‘GHOST’” ETC.
Illustrated
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1883
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
_All rights reserved._
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
“DON’T THINK FOR A MOMENT OF GETTING ANY OTHER
CANOE” _Frontispiece_
“SHE’S HALF FULL OF WATER” 30
A STAMPEDE IN CAMP 38
NOT SO EASY AS IT LOOKS 50
“HE CAUGHT HOLD OF THE ROOT OF A TREE AND KEPT HIS
CANOE STATIONARY” 70
RUNNING THE RAPID 78
GETTING BREAKFAST UNDER DIFFICULTIES 94
HUNTING FOR A WILD-CAT IN CHAMBLY CASTLE 110
SAILING DOWN THE RICHELIEU RIVER 116
“THEY FOUND A BEAR FEASTING UPON THE REMAINS OF THEIR
BREAKFAST” 138
AROUND THE CAMP-FIRE 146
“HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET UP THERE?” 160
THE CRUISE
OF
THE CANOE CLUB.
CHAPTER I.
It is a very easy thing for four boys to make up their minds to get
four canoes and to go on a canoe cruise, but it is not always so
easy to carry out such a project--as Charley Smith, Tom Schuyler,
Harry Wilson, and Joe Sharpe discovered.
Canoes cost money; and though some canoes cost more than others,
it is impossible to buy a new wooden canoe of an approved model
for less than seventy-five dollars. Four canoes, at seventy-five
dollars each, would cost altogether three hundred dollars. As the
entire amount of pocket-money in the possession of the boys was
only seven dollars and thirteen cents, it was clear that they were
not precisely in a position to buy canoes.
There was Harry’s uncle, who had already furnished his nephew
and his young comrades first with a row-boat, and then with a
sail-boat. Even a benevolent uncle deserves some mercy, and the
boys agreed that it would never do to ask Uncle John to spend three
hundred dollars in canoes for them. “The most we can ask of him,”
said Charley Smith, “is to let us sell the _Ghost_ and use the
money to help pay for canoes.”
Now, the _Ghost_, in which the boys had made a cruise along the
south shore of Long Island, was a very nice sail-boat, but it was
improbable that any one would be found who would be willing to
give more than two hundred dollars for her. There would still be
a hundred dollars wanting, and the prospect of finding that sum
seemed very small.
“If we could only have stayed on that water-logged brig and
brought her into port we should have made lots of money,” said Tom.
“The captain of the schooner that towed us home went back with a
steamer and brought the brig in yesterday. Suppose we go and look
at her once more?”
While cruising in the _Ghost_ the boys had found an abandoned brig,
which they had tried to sail into New York harbor, but they had
been compelled to give up the task, and to hand her over to the
captain of a schooner which towed the partly disabled _Ghost_ into
port. They all thought they would like to see the brig again, so
they went down to Burling Slip, where she was lying, and went on
board her.
The captain of the schooner met the boys on the dock. He was in
excellent spirits, for the brig was loaded with valuable South
American timber, and he was sure of receiving as much as ten
thousand dollars from her owners. He knew very well that, while the
boys had no legal right to any of the money, they had worked hard
in trying to save the brig, and had been the means of putting her
in his way. He happened to be an honest, generous man, and he felt
very rich; so he insisted on making each of the boys a present.
The present was sealed up in an envelope, which he gave to Charley
Smith, telling him not to look at its contents until after
dinner--the boys having mentioned that they were all to take dinner
together at Uncle John’s house. Charley put the envelope rather
carelessly in his pocket; but when it was opened it was found to
contain four new one-hundred-dollar bills.
It need hardly be said that the boys were delighted. They showed
the money to Uncle John, who told them that they had fairly earned
it, and need feel no hesitation about accepting it. They had now
money enough to buy canoes, and to pay the expenses of a canoe
cruise. Mr. Schuyler, Mr. Sharpe, and Charley’s guardian were
consulted, and at Uncle John’s request gave their consent to the
canoeing scheme. The first great difficulty in the way was thus
entirely removed.
“I don’t know much about canoes,” remarked Uncle John, when the
boys asked his advice as to what kind of canoes they should get,
“but I know the commodore of a canoe club. You had better go
and see him, and follow his advice. I’ll give you a letter of
introduction to him.”
No time was lost in finding the commodore, and Charley Smith
explained to him that four young canoeists would like to know what
was the very best kind of canoe for them to get.
The Commodore, who, in spite of his magnificent title, wasn’t in
the least alarming, laughed, and said, “That is a question that
I’ve made up my mind never to try to answer. But I’ll give you the
names of four canoeists, each of whom uses a different variety of
canoe. You go and see them, listen to what they say, believe it
all, and then come back and see me, and we’ll come to a decision.”
He then wrote four notes of introduction, gave them to the boys,
and sent them away.
The first canoeist to whom the boys were referred received them
with great kindness, and told them that it was fortunate they
had come to him. “The canoe that you want,” said he, “is the
‘Rice Lake’ canoe, and if you had gone to somebody else, and
he had persuaded you to buy ‘Rob Roy’ canoes or ‘Shadows,’ you
would have made a great mistake. The ‘Rice Lake’ canoe is nearly
flat-bottomed, and so stiff that there is no danger that you will
capsize her. She paddles easily, and sails faster than any other
canoe. She is roomy, and you can carry about twice as much in her
as you can carry in a ‘Rob Roy.’ She has no keel, so that you can
run rapids easily in her, and she is built in a peculiar way that
makes it impossible for her to leak. Don’t think for a moment of
getting any other canoe, for if you do you will never cease to
regret it.”
He was such a pleasant, frank gentleman, and was so evidently
earnest in what he said, that the boys at once decided to get ‘Rice
Lake’ canoes. They did not think it worth while to make any farther
inquiries; but, as they had three other notes of introduction
with them, Tom Schuyler said that it would hardly do to throw them
away. So they went to see the next canoeist, though without the
least expectation that he would say anything that would alter their
decision.
Canoeist No. 2 was as polite and enthusiastic as canoeist No. 1.
“So you boys want to get canoes, do you?” said he. “Well, there
is only one canoe for you to get, and that is the ‘Shadow.’ She
paddles easily, and sails faster than any other canoe. She’s not
a flat-bottomed skiff, like the ‘Rice Laker,’ that will spill you
whenever a squall strikes her, but she has good bearings, and you
can’t capsize her unless you try hard. Then, she is decked all
over, and you can sleep in her at night, and keep dry even in a
thunder-storm; her water-tight compartments have hatches in them,
so that you can stow blankets and things in them that you want to
keep dry; and she has a keel, so that when you run rapids, and
she strikes on a rock, she will strike on her keel instead of her
planks. It isn’t worth while for you to look at any other canoe,
for there is no canoe except the ‘Shadow’ that is worth having.”
“You don’t think much of the ‘Rice Lake’ canoe, then?” asked Harry.
“Why, she isn’t a civilized canoe at all,” replied the canoeist.
“She is nothing but a heavy, wooden copy of the Indian birch. She
hasn’t any deck, she hasn’t any water-tight compartments, and she
hasn’t any keel. Whatever else you do, don’t get a ‘Rice Laker.’”
The boys thanked the advocate of the “Shadow,” and when they
found themselves in the street again they wondered which of the
two canoeists could be right, for each directly contradicted the
other, and each seemed to be perfectly sincere. They reconsidered
their decision to buy “Rice Lake” canoes, and looked forward with
interest to their meeting with canoeist No. 3.
That gentleman was just as pleasant as the other two, but he did
not agree with a single thing that they had said. “There are
several different models of canoes,” he remarked, “but that
is simply because there are ignorant people in the world. Mr.
Macgregor, the father of canoeing, always uses a ‘Rob Roy’ canoe,
and no man who has once been in a good ‘Rob Roy’ will ever get
into any other canoe. The ‘Rob Roy’ paddles like a feather, and
will outsail any other canoe. She weighs twenty pounds less than
those great, lumbering canal-boats, the ‘Shadow’ and the ‘Rice
Laker,’ and it don’t break your back to paddle her or to carry
her round a dam. She is decked over, but her deck isn’t all cut
up with hatches. There’s plenty of room to sleep in her, and her
water-tight compartments are what they pretend to be--not a couple
of leaky boxes stuffed full of blankets.”
“We have been advised,” began Charley, “to get ‘Shadows’ or ‘Rice’--”
“Don’t you do it,” interrupted the canoeist. “It’s lucky for you
that you came to see me. It is a perfect shame for people to try to
induce you to waste your money on worthless canoes. Mind you get
‘Rob Roys,’ and nothing else. Other canoes don’t deserve the name.
They are schooners, or scows, or canal-boats, but the ‘Rob Roy’ is
a genuine canoe.”
“Now for the last canoeist on the list!” exclaimed Harry as the
boys left the office of canoeist No. 3. “I wonder what sort of a
canoe he uses?”
“I’m glad there is only one more of them for us to see,” said Joe.
“The Commodore told us to believe all they said, and I’m trying my
best to do it, but it’s the hardest job I ever tried.”
The fourth canoeist was, on the whole, the most courteous and
amiable of the four. He begged his young friends to pay no
attention to those who recommended wooden canoes, no matter what
model they might be. “Canvas,” said he, “is the only thing that a
canoe should be built of. It is light and strong, and if you knock
a hole in it you can mend it in five minutes. If you want to spend
a great deal of money and own a yacht that is too small to sail in
with comfort and too clumsy to be paddled, buy a wooden canoe;
but if you really want to cruise, you will, of course, get canvas
canoes.”
“We have been advised to get ‘Rice Lakers,’ ‘Shadows,’ and ‘Rob
Roys,’” said Tom, “and we did not know until now that there was
such a thing as a canvas canoe.”
“It is very sad,” replied the canoeist, “that people should take
pleasure in giving such advice. They must know better. However, the
subject is a painful one, and we won’t discuss it. Take my advice,
my dear boys, and get canvas canoes. All the really good canoeists
in the country would say the same thing to you.”
“We must try,” said Joe, as the boys walked back to the Commodore’s
office, “to believe that the ‘Rice Laker,’ the ‘Shadow,’ the ‘Rob
Roy,’ and the canvas canoe is the best one ever built. It seems to
me something like believing that four and one are just the same.
Perhaps you fellows can do it, but I’m not strong enough to believe
as much as that all at one time.”
The Commodore smiled when the boys entered his office for the
second time and said, “Well, of course you’ve found out what is the
best canoe, and know just what you want to buy?”
“We’ve seen four men,” replied Harry, “and each one says that the
canoe that he recommends is the only good one, and that all the
others are good for nothing.”
“I might have sent you to four other men, and they would have told
you of four other canoes, each of which is the best in existence.
But perhaps you have already heard enough to make up your minds.”
“We’re farther from making up our minds than ever,” said Harry. “I
do wish you would tell us what kind of canoe is really the best.”
“The truth is,” said the Commodore, “that there isn’t much to
choose among the different models of canoes, and you’ll find that
every canoeist is honestly certain that he has the best one. Now,
I won’t undertake to select canoes for you, though I will suggest
that a light ‘Rob Roy’ would probably be a good choice for the
smallest of you boys. Why don’t you try all four of the canoes that
have just been recommended to you? Then, if you cruise together,
you can perhaps find out if any one of them is really better than
the others. I will give you the names of three or four builders,
all of whom build good, strong boats.”
This advice pleased the boys, and they resolved to accept it. That
evening they all met at Harry’s home and decided what canoes they
would get. Harry determined to get a “Shadow,” Tom a “Rice Laker,”
Charley a canvas canoe, and Joe a “Rob Roy;” and the next morning
orders for the four canoes were mailed to the builders whom the
Commodore had recommended.