"They are, indeed. And for you?"
"Yes; I guess so. For one thing, I have discovered the habitat of about a million muscles that I didn't know I had; and for another——"
"Well?" she challenged, "why don't you say it?"
"I will say it. For another, I have discovered the most remarkable woman that ever lived."
She laughed joyously. "See what a few days of unavoidable propinquity will do! But you are mistaken—I'm not especially remarkable. You are only doing what Mr. Grider said you ought to do—studying the female of the species at short range."
"Grider was an ass!" was the impatient rejoinder. "If I had him here I'd duck him in the river in spite of his fifty pounds excess. But this isn't getting the remainder of the dunnage. Are you quite sure you want to go along?"
"Quite sure," she returned, and once more they took the riverside trail to the stream-head.
The third carry was lighter than the others had been, and the six-mile tramp was the best possible antidote for stiffened joints and lamed muscles. By the time they had reassembled themselves and their belongings in the little glade between the rapids they were both in fine fettle, and ready to begin the real journey.
The loading of the canoe was a new thing, but in this they gave common sense a free rein. The camp stuff and provisions were made into packages with the blankets and the tent canvas for wrappings; and each package was securely lashed beneath the brace-bars of the birch-bark, so that in case of a capsize there would still be some chance for salvage. Prime's final precaution was worthy of a real woodsman. Drying the empty whiskey-bottle carefully with a wisp of grass, he filled it with matches, corked it tightly, and skewered it in an inside pocket of his coat.
"You are learning," Lucetta observed; and then: "Did you get that out of a story?"