“Oh, it is good enough. I’m not sure that it isn’t better than either yours or Tom’s; but it certainly isn’t as handy as Joe’s lateen.”
“Now that you’ve settled that I’ve the best rig,” said Joe, “you’d better admit that I’ve the best canoe, and then turn in for the night. After the work we’ve done to-day, and the fun we had last night, I’m sleepy.”
“Do you call sitting still in a canoe hard work?” inquired Tom.
“Is falling down a well your idea of fun?” asked Harry.
“It’s too soon,” said Charley, “to decide who has the best canoe. We’ll find that out by the time the cruise is over.”
The island where the boys camped during their first night on the St. Lawrence was situated at the head of Lake St. Peter. This lake is simply an expansion of the St. Lawrence, and though it is thirty miles long and about ten miles wide at its widest part, it is so shallow that steamboats can only pass through it by following an artificial channel dredged out by the government at a vast expense. Its shores are lined with a thick growth of reeds, which extend in many places fully a mile into the lake, and are absolutely impassable, except where streams flowing into the lake have kept channels open through the reeds.
On leaving the island in the morning the canoeists paddled down the lake, for there was not a breath of wind. The sun was intensely hot, and the heat reflected from the surface of the water and the varnished decks of the canoes assisted in making the boys feel as if they were roasting before a fire. Toward noon the heat became really intolerable, and the Commodore gave the order to paddle over to the north shore in search of shade.
It was disappointing to find instead of a shady shore an impenetrable barrier of reeds. After resting a little while in the canoes, the boys started to skirt the reeds, in hope of finding an opening; and the sun, apparently taking pity on them, went under a cloud, so that they paddled a mile or two in comparative comfort.
The friendly cloud was followed before long by a mass of thick black clouds coming up from the south. Soon the thunder was heard in the distance, and it dawned upon the tired boys that they were about to have a thunder-storm, without any opportunity of obtaining shelter.