I still wondered why George did not stay to
help Job; for as all their conversations were carried on in Indian,
I was in darkness as to what was to happen. In silence I waited
for developments. A little distance above the point, near where
the water was deeper and not so swift, I looked back, and to my
astonishment I saw Job poling the canoe through the swift water
alone. But this was mild surprise compared with what was awaiting
me.
We were soon in the canoe, and for nearly half a mile they poled up
the swift current. The water was deep, and sometimes they bent
over the poles till their hands dipped into the water. It seemed
as if they must certainly fall overboard. I expected every minute
to find myself perforce taking a header into the deep water.
Sometimes we brushed the edge of a big ice-bank. The moment the
poles were lifted the canoe stopped its forward movement, and if
they were not quickly set again it began to slip back with the
current. At last the water became too shallow and rough and we
went ashore. Here the portaging began, and I climbed up over the
ice-banks and walked along the shore. Even while ice and snow
lingered, the flowers were beginning to bloom, and I found two tiny
blue violets.
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