The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge
which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters--looking, when
lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The ears,
heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time of
the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our young
adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by the
little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in,
leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, which
Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, and
which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand
and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account
of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself
with fishing from the raft till their return.
The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the
canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and
another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the
other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick;
the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little
practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass
fall in ridges beneath his scythe.
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