CHAPTER XXI
WILD FRUIT
After a swim in the clear water of Oba Lake the travellers turned their canoe to the south.
“I am glad we are going home,” remarked Ray. “The black spruce forest looked so big and so much the same everywhere I just could not help feeling that we should get lost if we ever went into it.”
Bruce smiled at Ray’s mention of home. “We are very far from home, my boy,” he answered with a sad smile. “I sometimes think that we shall never see our Vermont hills again. It seems to me that we have been gone for years and that we have just turned around at the end of the world.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean home in Vermont,” replied Ray. “I meant the country along the Michipicoten River. I just felt homesick [[167]]for that country when I saw the endless spruce forest north of this lake.”
Both lads were surprised when in about four hours of easy paddling they had skirted the west shore of the lake and had also crossed the lake back to their carrying-place or portage on the east shore, where their lean-to was still standing just as they had left it.
“Bruce, I wonder if Ganawa would stay here over night,” asked Ray. “I like this camp very much and we could have another camp-fire of driftwood. It is lots of fun to make a fire when you don’t have to cut a lot of wood.”
Ganawa was quite willing that they should spend another night at this fine camp. “I have now travelled on the blue lake that I have wished to see for a long time. We can travel back slowly, but we shall still make good time, because we know where we are going and we do not need to stop to look for signs of your brother. My little son may play or fish at this camp till evening.” [[168]]
Ray first took a swim in the warm water in a cove with a sandy bottom. Then he picked a kettleful of berries; raspberries, pin-cherries, and blueberries all mixed. It was now past the middle of July and all the North Woods berries seemed to be ripe at the same time. There was another berry which hung in beautiful red bunches on the bushes, but they were tasteless and Ganawa said that the Great Spirit had made them for the wild birds, and the lads observed that about every kind of bird in the woods was feeding on them. They were the red berries of the elder, which in the latitude of Central Minnesota are ripe early in June, but in the region north and northeast of Lake Superior summer comes about six weeks later, thus crowding all wild fruit into a much shorter season.