Jim looked down, and a great smile of delight unfolded like a fan across his face from side to side.

“Guess you’re right, Henry,” he said, “an’ I am still all in one piece.”

He sprang back into the water, and he and Sol soon finished their task.  After that it was arranged that Sol, Jim, and Tom should give a thorough furbishing to the boat’s interior, wash and dry their spare clothing and bedding, while Henry and Paul went on a hunt for a deer to replenish their larder.

“You see, Paul,” said Henry, “the waters of this creek are quite clear, which means that it comes through good, hard ground.  It’s likely that it isn’t far back to one of the little prairies which I’ve heard are common in this part of Louisiana, and in a wild country like this where there’s a prairie there’s pretty likely to be deer.”

The logic seemed good to Paul.  At any rate he was willing enough to go on a hunt, stretch his legs, and see a new region.  Saying that they should probably be gone all day they started at once, leaving the others absorbed in the task of housecleaning.

They reached solid ground not far from the creek’s edge and walked along briskly, following the course of the stream back toward its source.  The soil was black and deep and the forest magnificent.  Great beeches and hickories were mingled with the willows and live oaks and cypresses, and the foliage was thick, green, and beautiful.  The birds seemed innumerable, and now and then flocks of wild fowl rose with a whir from the creek’s edge.  Keen, penetrating odors of forest and wild flower came to their nostrils.

Both boys threw up their heads, inhaled the odors, and thrilled in every fiber.  They were very young, care could never stay with them long and now they felt only the sheer, pure delight of living.  They looked back.  The forest had already shut out their boat, and one who did not know would not have dreamed that the longest river in the world was only a mile or two away.  They were alone in the wilderness and they did not care.  They were sufficient, for the moment, each to the other.

As they advanced, the creek narrowed and the forest thickened.  The trees not only grew closer together, but there was a vast mass and network of trailing vines, extended from trunk to trunk and bough to bough.  One huge oak in the very center of an intricate maze of vines was drawn far over and its boughs were twisted into strange, distorted shapes.  It was obvious to both that the vines, singly so feeble, collectively so powerful, had done it, and they stood a moment or two wondering at this proof of the power of united and unceasing effort.

They went a mile or so further on, and Henry led the way toward the left and from the creek.  An instinct or the lay of the land, perhaps, warned him that the open country was in that direction.  The trees, had begun to thin already, and in another mile they came out upon a beautiful little rolling prairie.  It was quite clear of trees; grass, mingled with wild flowers, grew high upon it, and at the far edge they saw the figures of animals grazing.