feet into the muddy bed of the stream, had, refused to go further.
The fierce current would lift the head several feet with a splash,
but could hold it thus only a part of a minute, when it would dip
for a brief while, to rise again and repeat the action.

The tree was what is known to-day on the Mississippi as a "sawyer,"
and which is so dreaded by the steamers and other craft navigating
the river. Many a boat striking at full speed against them, have
had their hulls pierced as if by a hundred-pound shell, and have
gone to the bottom like stone.

It was the sound made by the "sawyer" which had puzzled Jack
Carleton before he caught sight of the great river. He could not
wonder that he had failed to guess the cause of the intermittent
swash which reached him through the woods.

"And we must cross that stream," murmured Jack, with half a
shudder, as he looked out upon the prodigious volume rushing
southward like myriads of wild horses; "it seems to me no one can
swim to the other shore, nor can a raft or boat be pushed thither."

The plucky boy would not have felt so distrustful and timid had the
sun been shining overhead.

"Ish dot you, Jack?"

Young Carleton turned his head as if a war hoop had sounded in his
ear. He fairly bounded feet when he recognized his old friend at
his elbow. The good-natured German lad was grinning with delight,
as he extended his chubby hand and asked: