returned.
CHAPTER XVI TRAVEL
Day followed day. Summer was upon the land, early summer, with the
sweet winds stirring upon the waters, with gauze-winged creatures
flitting above the, shallows where willow and vine-maple fringed the
edges and silver fish leaped to their undoing, with fleecy clouds
floating in a sapphire sky, and birds straining their little throats in
the forest.
McElroy and De Courtenay were loosed of their bonds and given paddles
in the canoes, a change which was welcomed gladly.
At night a guard paced their sleeping-place and the strictest
surveillance was kept over them.
Down the Assiniboine, into Red River, and across Portage la Prairie
went the great flotilla, green shores winding past in an endless
pageant of foliage, all hands falling to at the portages and trailing
silently for many pipes, one behind the other, all laden with
provisions and packs of furs, the canoes upturned and carried on heads
and shoulders.
Of unfailing spirits was Alfred de Courteray.
"'Od's blood, M'sieu," he would laugh, oddly mixing his dialect, "but
this is seeing the wilderness with a vengeance! Though there is no lack
of variety to speed the days, yet I would I were back in my post of
Brisac on the Saskatchewan, with a keg of good-liquor on the table and
my hearty voyaguers shouting their chansons outside, my clerks and
traders making merry within.
Pages:
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172