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294 made a memorable supper. The runaway carpenter "washed up" after us. Then we "made our beds" on the deck, between the canoes, drew our blankets over us, and looked up at the stars, which seemed, from the motion of the boat and our position, to be moving in a grand, slow procession. It was a beautiful night, and our enjoyment was great. The trees reached over the canal nearly all the way. On one side, below us some fifty yards, was the river, with a black mountain on the other side. Above us, about the same distance, was the railroad, cut out of the mountain foot; and sheer above that the "eternal hills," lifting to the stars.

There was no sound but the swish of the great boat and the distant quick hoofing of the mules. About midnight we heard a strange, hard roar, rising and falling in a certain cadence. It was only little Tom, who had just waked from his first nap on the mule's back, and was cheering them with a song. The children who drive the mules for this great corporation soon learn to sleep on the animals' backs.

In the morning, before breakfast, we saw a fair place for lowering our boats to the river; and we shook hands with Captain Tom Elder, and the serious cook, and the runaway carpenter, and little Calliope-Tom. We had, it appeared, won