Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

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AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS.
scene around them looked mysterious and ghostly
too, for the water in the lake seemed black, and
the shores and islands looked like dark shadows,
and a pale thin mist rolled slowly over the surface
of the water and hung overhead. No sound was
heard except the light plash of the paddles as the
two backwoodsmen urged their little canoe swiftly
along.
By degrees the light of day increased, and
Jasper awakened Hey wood, in order that he might
behold the beautiful scenery through which they
passed. They were now approaching the upper
end of the lake, in which there were innumerable
islands of every shape and size—some of them not
more than a few yards in length, while some were
two or three hundred yards across, but all were
clothed with the most beautiful green foliage and
shrubbery. As the pale yellow of the eastern sky
began to grow red, ducks and gulls bestirred them¬
selves. Early risers among them first began to
chirp, and scream, and whistle their morning song,
—for there are lazy ones among the birds, just as
there are among men. Sometimes, when the canoe
rounded a point of rock, a flock of geese were
found floating peacefully among the sedges, sound
asleep, with their heads under their wings. These
would leap into the air and fly off in great alarm,
with much difficulty and tremendous splutter, re¬
minding one of the proverb, “ The more haste the