At first, the bee-hunter said that they were still
going slowly to the southward; but he habitually carried his little
glass, and, on levelling that, it was quite apparent that the
savages were paddling before the wind, and making for the mouth of
the river. This was a very grave fact; and, as Blossom flew to
communicate it to her brother and his wife, le Bourdon moved toward
his own canoe, and looked about for a place of concealment.
Several considerations had to be borne in mind, in disposing of the
canoes; for that of Gershom was to be secreted, as well as that of
the bee-hunter. A tall aquatic plant, that is termed wild rice, and
which we suppose to be the ordinary rice-plant, unimproved by
tillage, grows spontaneously about the mouths and on the flats of
most of the rivers of the part of Michigan of which we are writing;
as, indeed, it is to be found in nearly all the shallow waters of
those regions. There was a good deal of this rice at hand; and the
bee-hunter, paddling his own canoe and towing the other, entered
this vegetable thicket, choosing a channel that had been formed by
some accident of nature, and which wound through the herbage in a
way soon to conceal all that came within its limits.
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