"Tell him I will hire out to you for that time. And how much shall I pay you for the passage?"
"Jean says that's all right,—you can't leave us unless you can swim,—and we 're more than glad to get the help."
"I can sleep on the deck; I have a warm coat."
"Oh, no; my husband often sleeps on deck when we are at anchor; but to-night he will not sleep at all. We go to Sorel; we must be there by three in the morning. You can sleep in his bunk."
She parted some curtains and showed me a two-and-a-half feet wide bunk beneath the sloping deck. I thanked her.
"If the wind should come up heavy, I shall do the steering," she said. "I will be down after we get under way. I help Jean."
She went up the tiny companionway, and I heard her talking in a low voice to "Jean". Soon there was a noise of trailing ropes, of a sail being hoisted; a sound of pushing and hauling—a soft swaying motion to the boat, then the ripple of the water under her bow.
I lay down in the bunk; the sound of the ever-flowing river soothed me. I was worn out.