The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the
discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket
almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several
yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all,
an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These
articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or
trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted
from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some
accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of
course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate,
and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so
providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet.
"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down last
night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not been drawn
into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it.
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