Part 12 (1/2)

CHAPTER XI.

Charley and Harry begin their sporting career without much success--Whisky-john catching.

The place in the boats usually allotted to gentlemen in the Company's service while travelling is the stern. Here the lading is so arranged as to form a pretty level hollow, where the flat bundles containing their blankets are placed, and a couch is thus formed that rivals Eastern effeminacy in luxuriance. There are occasions, however, when this couch is converted into a bed, not of thorns exactly, but of corners; and really it would be hard to say which of the two is the more disagreeable. Should the men be careless in arranging the cargo, the inevitable consequence is that ”monsieur” will find the leg of an iron stove, the sharp edge of a keg, or the corner of a wooden box occupying the place where his ribs should be. So common, however, is this occurrence that the clerks usually superintend the arrangements themselves, and so secure comfort.

On a couch, then, of this kind Charley and Harry now found themselves constrained to sit all morning--sometimes asleep, occasionally awake, and always earnestly desiring that it was time to put ash.o.r.e for breakfast, as they had now travelled for four hours without halt, except twice for about five minutes, to let the men light their pipes.

”Charley,” said Harry Somerville to his friend, who sat beside him, ”it strikes me that we are to have no breakfast at all to-day. Here have I been holding my breath and tightening my belt, until I feel much more like a spider or a wasp than a--a--”

”_Man_, Harry; out with it at once, don't be afraid,” said Charley.

”Well, no, I wasn't going to have said _that_ exactly, but I was going to have said a voyageur, only I recollected our doings this morning, and hesitated to take the name until I had won it.”

”It's well that you entertain so modest an opinion of yourself,” said Mr. Park, who still smoked his pipe as if he were impressed with the idea that to stop for a moment would produce instant death. ”I may tell you for your comfort, youngster, that we shan't breakfast till we reach yonder point.”

The sh.o.r.es of Lake Winnipeg are flat and low, and the point indicated by Mr. Park lay directly in the light of the sun, which now shone with such splendour in the cloudless sky, and flashed on the polished water, that it was with difficulty they could look towards the point of land.

”Where is it?” asked Charley, shading his eyes with his hand; ”I cannot make out anything at all.”

”Try again, my boy; there's nothing like practice.”

”Ah yes! I make it out now; a faint shadow just under the sun. Is that it?”

”Ay, and we'll break our fast _there_.”

”I would like very much to break your head _here_,” thought Charley, but he did not say it, as, besides being likely to produce unpleasant consequences, he felt that such a speech to an elderly gentleman would be highly improper; and Charley had _some_ respect for gray hairs for their own sake, whether the owner of them was a good man or a goose.

”What shall we do, Harry? If I had only thought of keeping out a book.”

”I know what _I_ shall do,” said Harry, with a resolute air: ”I'll go and shoot!”

”Shoot!” cried Charley. ”You don't mean to say that you're going to waste your powder and shot by firing at the clouds! for unless you take _them_, I see nothing else here.”

”That's because you don't use your eyes,” retorted Harry. ”Will you just look at yonder rock ahead of us, and tell me what you see?”

Charley looked earnestly at the rock, which to a cursory glance seemed as if composed of whiter stone on the top. ”Gulls, I declare!” shouted Charley, at the same time jumping up in haste.

Just then one of the gulls, probably a scout sent out to watch the approaching enemy, wheeled in a circle overhead. The two youths dragged their guns from beneath the thwarts of the boat, and rummaged about in great anxiety for shot-belts and powder-horns. At last they were found; and having loaded, they sat on the edge of the boat, looking out for game with as much--ay, with _more_ intense interest than a Blackfoot Indian would have watched for a fat buffalo cow.

”There he goes,” said Harry; ”take the first shot, Charley.”

”Where? where is it?”

”Right ahead. Look out!”

As Harry spoke, a small white gull, with bright-red legs and beak, flew over the boat so close to them that, as the guide remarked, ”he could see it wink!” Charley's equanimity, already pretty well disturbed, was entirely upset at the suddenness of the bird's appearance; for he had been gazing intently at the rock when his friend's exclamation drew his attention in time to see the gull within about four feet of his head.

With a sudden ”Oh!” Charley threw forward his gun, took a short, wavering aim, and blew the c.o.c.k-tail feather out of Baptiste's hat; while the gull sailed tranquilly away, as much as to say, ”If _that's_ all you can do, there's no need for me to hurry!”