That
made me feel better, for I was really afraid he had forgotten how useful
a gun is out camping; and I was so taken up watching him fit it together
that I almost forgot my poling, till he suddenly sung out, for all the
world like a regular sailor, "Hard a-port, lad! Mind your course there,
or we'll be swamped," and, sure enough, I had to swing her out into the
stream, or we'd have run aground.
But that was the end of the marshes, and then we did rig up our sail,
and 'twas a fine old fly, I tell you. My, how I enjoyed it! The breeze
had come up a little, and sent us cutting through the water as slick as
your big knife cuts through a loaf of bread. We didn't stop at all, till
it was time to make camp, and then we had a real good time, for the
professor is just like a boy here.
He cut saplings for tent-poles, and showed me how to make the pins, and
fasten down the canvas, then we built a nice little fire, and put our
camp-stove over it. It is nothing but a big piece of stove-pipe, I
should think, with a griddle on top, but works first-rate; and then we
got supper together. You ought to see his camp-chest, Sara! It isn't
much bigger than that old desk Miss Prue gave you, but it has everything
in it, I should think; and there isn't an inch of waste room.
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