"Wal," replied the narrator; "some people that I've told it to, have
suspicioned that it might be so; but every thing about it seemed so
nateral, that I'm almost ready to make my affidavy that it was sober
fact. One thing, however, I always had my doubts about: I never fully
believed, that _I was actually pitched over that island_. I've hearn
it said that when a man has eaten a hearty dinner, and goes to sleep
with the hot sun pourin' right down on him, he's apt to see and hear a
good many strange things before he wakes up. May be it was so
with me."




CHAPTER VI.

THE UPPER SARANAC--SPECTACLE PONDS--THE ACCUSATION AND THE DEFENCE--AN
OCTOGENARIAN SMOKER.


We spent the next day in rowing about the Upper Saranac, exploring its
beautiful bays and islands. We took as many trout in trolling
occasionally, as we needed for dinner and supper. It became an
established law among us, that we should kill no more game or fish
than we needed for supplies, whatever their abundance or our
temptation might be. It required some self-denial to observe this law,
but we kept it with tolerable strictness. There were times when we had
a large supply of both venison and fish, but there were seven men of
us in all, and we could despose of a good deal of flesh and fish in
the twenty-four hours. We had sent our boat with the luggage across
the Indian carrying place, a path of a mile through the forest, to the