The sisters were preparing the breakfast.  This was done without the use of fire, it being too hazardous to permit smoke to rise above the tops of the trees.  Many is the camp that has been discovered by the smoke, which can be seen at a great distance; and it is a certain sign of the presence of man, when it ascends in threads, or such small columns as denote a domestic fire beneath.  This is very different from the clouds that float above the burning prairies, and which all, at once, impute to their true origin.  The danger of using fire had been so much guarded against by our fugitives, that the cooking of the party had been done at night; the utmost caution having been used to prevent the fire itself from being seen, and care taken to extinguish it long before the return of day.  A supply of cold meat was always on hand, and had it not been, the fugitives would have known how to live on berries, or, at need, to fast; anything was preferable, being exposed to certain capture.

As soon as the party had broken their fast, arrangements were made for recruiting nature by sleep.  As for Pigeonswing, Indian-like, he had eaten enormously, no reasonable quantity of venison sufficing to appease his appetite; and when he had eaten, he lay down in the bottom of his canoe and slept.  Similar dispositions were made of their persons by the rest, and half an hour after the meal was ended, all there were in a profound sleep.  No watch was considered necessary, and none was kept.

The rest of the weary is sweet.  Long hours passed, ere any one there awoke; but no sooner did the Chippewa move than all the rest were afoot.  It was now late in the day, and it was time to think of taking the meal that was to sustain them through the toil and fatigues of another arduous night.  This was done; the necessary preparations being made for a start ere the sun had set.  The canoes were then shoved as near the mouth of the inlet as it was safe to go, while the light remained.  Here they stopped, and a consultation took place, as to the manner of proceeding.

No sooner did the shades of evening close around the place than the fugitives again put forth.  The night was clouded and dark, and so much of the way now lay through forests that there was little reason to apprehend detection.  The chief causes of delay were the rifts, and the portages, as had been the case the night before.  Luckily, le Bourdon had been up and down the stream so often as to be a very tolerable pilot in its windings.  He assumed the control, and by midnight the greatest obstacle to that evening’s progress was overcome.  At the approach of day, Pigeonswing pointed out another creek, in another swamp, where the party found a refuge for the succeeding day.  In this manner four nights were passed on the river, and as many days in swamps, without discovery.  The Chippewa had nicely calculated his time and his distances, and not the smallest mistake was made.  Each morning a place of shelter was