“Why, what's to hinder us to hew a log, and make a dug-out? We have still got the axe, and two hatchets left.”
Norman asked what François meant by a dug-out. The phrase was new to him.
“A canoe,” replied François, “hollowed out of a tree. They are sometimes called 'dug-outs' on the Mississippi, especially when they are roughly made. One of them, I think, would carry all four of us well enough. Don't you think so, Luce?”
“Why, yes,” answered the student; “a large one might: but I fear there are no trees about here of sufficient size. We are not among the great timber of the Mississippi bottom, you must remember.”
“How large a tree would it require?” asked Norman, who knew but little of this kind of craft.
“Three feet in diameter, at least,” replied Lucien; “and it should be of that thickness for a length of nearly twenty feet. A less one would not carry four of us.”
“Then I am sure enough,” responded Norman, “that we won't find such timber here. I have seen no tree of that size either yesterday, or while we were out this morning.”
“Nor I,” added Basil.
“I don't believe there's one,” said Lucien.
“If we were in Louisiana,” rejoined François, “I could find fifty canoe-trees by walking as many yards. Why I never saw such insignificant timber as this here.”