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Transcriber's note:
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[Illustration: "He stood up in the boat, and gave all his
attention to the fish." _Page 73._]
CAMPING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
Or
On the Trail of the Early Discoverers
by
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON
Author of "The Boys with Old Hickory," "Tecumseh's Young
Braves," "Guarding the Border," "The Boys of Old Monmouth,"
"Washington's Young Aids," "Ward Hill at Weston," etc., etc.
Illustrated by A. B. Shute
Boston
Lee and Shepard Publishers
1905
Copyright, 1899, by Lee and Shepard.
All Rights Reserved.
CAMPING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
PREFACE.
In this story I have endeavored to take my young readers to one of our
noblest rivers, and not only to make them share in the stirring
experiences which are to be had on its waters, but also to make them
feel something of the power of the wonderful history of those who
first looked upon its scenes of beauty.
The events recorded have largely been taken from actual occurrences,
the characters, I trust, will not be found untrue to life, and the
historical references not inaccurate or uninteresting. Young people
are able to feel the inspiration of nature's power when they are not
able to define or express it, and perhaps the best form of teaching is
that which enables them to look out with the inner vision rather than
to observe these things from the outside.
Inspiring as is the majestic river, no less inspiring is the story of
the men who first sailed over its waters. Their heroism, persistence,
and consecration are qualities which are needed by all men, and in all
places and times. We never outgrow these things, though the best parts
of our lives may grow out of them.
A better understanding of our own land--its natural beauty, its
history and heroes--is certainly not one of the least of the demands
of the present time; and the author of this story has had the modest
hope that its readers may gain a desire in its perusal to see and know
more of those possessions which with pardonable pride they are able to
claim as their own.
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON.
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. PREPARATIONS 1
II. THE JOURNEY 14
III. THE SAIL DOWN THE RIVER 27
IV. IN CAMP 41
V. BEN TRIES THE CANOE 53
VI. THE FIRST DAY'S SPORT 66
VII. IN GOOSE BAY 79
VIII. JOCK HAS HIS TURN 93
IX. ANCIENT HISTORY 105
X. TOM SURPRISES THE CAMP 118
XI. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY 131
XII. THE MISSING CAMPER 143
XIII. A MISHAP 155
XIV. ETHAN TELLS OF THE "JUMPERS" 169
XV. IN A FOREIGN LAND 183
XVI. AN ALARM IN THE CAMP 196
XVII. ON GUARD 209
XVIII. AN UNEXPECTED RACE 221
XIX. A MOONLIGHT SAIL 234
XX. THE START FOR THE RAPIDS 247
XXI. SHOOTING THE LONGUE SEAUT 260
XXII. THE RIVALS 274
XXIII. A PRIZE 286
XXIV. WHAT BECAME OF THE PRIZE 299
XXV. EARLY DISCOVERERS 312
XXVI. THE SQUALL 324
XXVII. THE SEARCH 336
XXVIII. HAMLICK 349
XXIX. AFTER THE TRAGEDY 362
XXX. BEN'S DISCOVERY 375
XXXI. THE RACES 388
XXXII. CONCLUSION 401
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
"He stood up in the boat and gave all his attention
to the fish" _Frontispiece_
PAGE
"Suddenly the canoe went over" 62
"The fire roared and the flames leaped higher" 107
"'She looked at me a minute as if she didn't know what
to make of it'" 151
"Bob took a long stick and poked the motionless form" 213
"On and on moved the swift-flying skiff" 269
"'Did you ever catch a bigger one?'" 303
"Without a protest the young mother rose" 356
CAMPING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.
CHAPTER I.
PREPARATIONS.
"Have you heard from Bob? Will he come?"
"Can't tell yet. I had a letter this morning, and he writes that it's
doubtful. He hasn't given up all hope, though, and says he may get on
the rear platform just as the train pulls out."
"That would be just like him. He never started for chapel till all the
fellows were there, or went into class-room until the recitation was
just ready to begin. He never wasted a minute of his time hanging
round."
"He never was late, though, in his life."
"That's all right. I know that as well as you do. I sometimes used to
wish he would be late, for it made me half provoked to see him.
Nothing ever seemed to put him out, and yet he'd always come in just
at the last minute, as if he hadn't hurried or he somehow knew they
wouldn't begin until he got there. It was just the same with his
studies. There I'd be burning my midnight oil and putting in my best
work, and he'd sit down for a few minutes at the table and do in half
an hour what it had taken me three straight hours to work out. I never
saw such a fellow."
"Yes, Bob was a great fellow."
"You don't have to remind me of that. Haven't we roomed together all
through senior year? I used to think before he took up his bed and
came over to room with me, that if I could only have him with me,
somehow I'd catch the way he did his work, but it wasn't contagious."
"He's got, without asking for it, what my father says is the one thing
he sent me to the academy for, and what he's going to send me to
college to get, though I'm afraid he'll be disappointed."
"What's that?"
"Oh, it's what my father calls the power of concentrating your mind."
"Well, Bob had it for a fact. It didn't seem to make much difference
to him whether there was a room full of fellows about him, or not.
When he got ready to work, he just sat down to it, and you might yell
in his ears or pull his chair out from under him, and it wouldn't make
a bit of difference. He'd sit there on thin air and dig away until his
work was all done and then look up as if he was as surprised as you
please to see any one in the room. Do you know, I just envied Bob. I
did for a fact. I'd give all my father's money to stand in his shoes."
"Perhaps your father would have something to say about that. But Bob
was a great fellow; no mistake about that. Do you think he'll have to
give up going to college with us?"
"I don't know; I hope not. His mother's a widow, you know, and since
his father died, I think they've had a hard time of it. If it was any
other fellow I'd say right off he couldn't go. But Bob's different,
you see. He didn't have any money and couldn't do lots of the things
the others did, but he was the most popular fellow in all the school,
for all that. So I somehow don't give up hope that he'll go with us in
the fall, after all. Everything seems to turn his way."
"Don't you believe it. It's the other way around, I'm telling you. He
just turns everything his way."
"Well, I don't care how you put it if he'll only join us in the camp.
I say, Jock, how did you happen to hit on this plan? It's great,
that's what it is."
"Oh, I didn't hit on it at all, it was my father. You see, he spent
the first vacation he's had in ten years last summer down at the
Thousand Islands. We all had such a good time that we wanted to go
again this summer; but he couldn't get away, and my mother wouldn't go
without him, so they finally compromised on me. At first they thought
they'd send me down to Alexandria Bay and Round Island to one of the
hotels, and for fear that I'd get lonesome they were going to select
some fine man who was well up in Latin and Greek to go along with me,
just for company, you see."
"Yes, I see," laughed his companion. "They were going to get a tutor
for you, were they?"
"Yes, that's what some people call it, I believe. But when I
astonished the family by passing my entrance exams., they didn't know
what to do, so at my own suggestion my father hired a camp on Pine
Tree Island, and the result is that you and the other fellows are to
benefit by my brilliant labors. You ought to be grateful; but this is
a cold, cold world, and I'm not building my hopes too high. The
trouble is, I _know_ you."
"Oh, we'll do the dutiful act and put in all the flourishes," said his
friend, with a laugh. "But say, Jock, is it really true about the
fishing and canoeing and all that sort of thing that they tell about
there?"
"True? well, I should say it was! You won't need but one look at the
river to make you think you've found the best spot on earth. Fishing,
fishing? why, let me tell you."
"No, no! please don't. I can't bear too much, you must remember."
"Fishing?" resumed Jock, unmindful of his friend's banter, "why, one
morning last summer I got up before breakfast--"
"Impossible!" interrupted his friend. "I can stand your fish stories;
but that--that is too much for me."
"One morning I got up early, as I was telling you," resumed Jock.
"I believe you did make some remarks upon that subject."
"Keep still! Well, I got up before light--"
"What, what?"
"And went out with my boatman. We caught thirty of the biggest bass
you ever saw--"
"Ever saw or ever expect to see," broke in his friend.
"And we were just going ashore to cook our dinner--"
"But when and where did you have breakfast? You've got ahead of your
story. Tell me about the breakfast. I haven't recovered from the shock
of thinking of you as being up before that was ready."
"And just before we landed, I was beginning to reel in my line. I had
out about a hundred and fifty feet, when all at once--"
"What, what? Oh, don't keep me in this suspense, I can't bear it,"
again interrupted his irreverent friend, striking an attitude of eager
attention as he spoke.
"I had a strike that almost yanked my rod out of my hand."
"Ah, yes, I see, your hook had caught on the bottom."
Jock flung a book at the head of his friend and then laughingly said:
"Well, you just wait till we get into camp, that's all I can say. If
you don't tell bigger stories then than I can now, it will be because
language has failed you."
"I usually fail in language; my marks are apt to be below par. But I
must be going now, Jock. You say the train leaves the Grand Central at
nine to-night?"
"Yes. You'd better get your ticket and check your trunk early. There's
likely to be a crowd at this time of the year."
"I'll be there. Got your ticket, Jock?"
"Me? Yes. I've got a pass for Bob and myself, or rather my father got
one for us."
"That's the way in this world," said his friend, with mock solemnity.
"Here you are the son of a railroad magnate and just rolling in lucre,
and you don't have to buy a ticket like common mortals. No, you have a
pass and all the conductors and porters stand off and look at you as
if you were the King of Cr[oe]sus or some other thing, and we poor
little sons of lawyers have to march up to the ticket-office and plank
down good, hard-earned straight cash for our little pieces of
pasteboards."
"You are to be pitied," replied Jock. "I heard my father say the other
day the reason the railroads couldn't make any money was because the
lawyers got in first, and the roads had to take what little they
left."
"Did he say that?"
"Yes, for a fact."
"This moment I return to my ancestral domicile and demand of my stern
parent the portion which falleth to me. He has kept his possession of
such vast wealth concealed from his family. I go to make him
disgorge."
"Don't forget the train leaves at nine," warned Jock. "I've got the
sleeping-car tickets, or at least I've got a section and a berth.
That'll be enough if Bob shouldn't come, and if he does, why, two of
us will have to double up, that's all."
Jock watched his friend as he ran down the stairway, and then turned
back into his own room and continued his preparations for the proposed
journey. Fishing tackle was rearranged, a gun was placed carefully in
its case, and many details looked after which only a light-hearted
lad, eager for a new experience, knew how to provide.
And certainly Josiah Cope apparently had everything to add to his
happiness. His home was one of wealth, and all that father or mother
could do had been done for him. He was an eager-hearted lad, as full
of good impulses as one could well be, and as he moved busily about in
his room it was not difficult to understand why he was such a
universal favorite among his mates. His face had that expression of
frankness and good-will which somehow draws to itself all who behold
it, whether they will or no; and the devotion with which his mother
watched over him was, in a measure, shared by his schoolboy friends,
for there was something about him which appealed to their desire to
protect and shield him from ruder blasts which others might endure
more readily.
Not that Jock (for so his friends had shortened the somewhat homely
name which the lad was the fifth in direct descent to bear) was in the
least effeminate, but his slight figure, his dark eyes and somewhat
delicate features, left one with the impression that he was not
over-rugged. Whatever others might think, his mother was most
decidedly of that opinion, and perhaps not without reason; for she
had seen his brothers and sisters enter the home only to remain for a
few brief years and then go out forever, and Jock, she frequently
declared, was her all. If she meant all she had left, she was correct,
and certainly the love he received in his home might easily have been
shared with many, and then no one would have complained of receiving
too small a portion.
But Jock had somehow survived the perilous treatment and apparently
was as popular among his mates as he was in his home. And unknown to
him it was the loving fears of his mother that had led to the
experiment of a summer camp among the Thousand Islands in the hope
that the breath of the great river and the outdoor life would bring a
little more color into the cheeks that were too pale for a well-grown
lad of seventeen to have.
The decision once made, the next move was to select his companions.
This was not a difficult problem, and soon the choicest three of his
friends in the academy from which Jock had just graduated, and with
whom he hoped to go up to college in the coming autumn, were invited
to join him,--an invitation quickly and eagerly accepted by all save
Robert Darnell, the "Bob" of the preceding conversation, and the
reasons which led him to hesitate have already been referred to.
Still all hoped that the sturdy Bob, the quiet self-contained lad, the
leader of his class in scholarship, and easily the best bat in school,
could come from his home in the country and join them.
Albert, or "Bert," Bliss, who had been having the conversation we have
already reported, was a short sturdy lad, always ready for a good
time, his curly hair and laughing blue eyes causing one to laugh
whenever he saw him, so irresistible was the contagion of his
overflowing spirits.
The fourth member of the proposed party, Benjamin, or "Ben," Dallett,
was in many ways the opposite of Albert, and in school parlance they
had sometimes been known as the "Siamese twins," or "The Long and the
Short of it." Certainly they were much together, and just as certainly
was Ben as much too tall as his friend was too short.
All of the boys save Bob had their abode in New York and had come from
homes of wealth, but in their presence Bob almost never thought of
his own deprivations, or only when it was impossible for him to engage
in some of the enterprises of his friends, and certain it is that the
envy to which Ben had given expression, if there was such a feeling
manifest among the four friends, was much more of the sterling worth
and quiet powers of Bob than of the possessions of the others. At all
events, they had become fast friends, and, bound together by such ties
as can only be found in school and college, would be certain to have a
good time if once they should be together in the camp on the selected
island in the St. Lawrence River.
The evening had come, and the three boys had eagerly been watching in
the great station for the arrival of their friend. As yet he had not
appeared, and when the gong sounded its warning, reluctantly they
grasped their various belongings and, holding their tickets in their
teeth, passed through the gate and boarded their train.
"It isn't time yet," said Bert. "He won't come till the train begins
to move."
"I'm afraid he isn't coming at all," replied Jock, as he arranged his
various parcels in the section, all the time keeping a careful lookout
for the appearance of the missing Bob in the doorway of the car.