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30 little pebbly beach and ate the provender he had brought. It was but bread and meat, but hunger was an excellent sauce for it, and with  draughts of water scooped from the river in  his hand it was soon finished. Then, because there was no haste needed and because the  sunshine was warm and pleasant, he leaned  back and dreamily watched the white clouds  float overhead, borne on a gentle southwesterly breeze. Behind him the narrow beach ended at a bank whereon alders and willows  and low trees made a thin hedge that partly  screened the wide expanse of fresh green  meadow that here followed the river for more  than five miles. Through it meandered little brooks between muddy banks, and here and  there a rounded island of clustered oaks or  maples stood above the level of the marsh. Swallows darted and from near at hand a kingfisher cried harshly. David’s dreaming was presently disturbed by the faint but unmistakable swish of paddles and he raised  his head just as a canoe rounded a turn  downstream.

The craft held three Indians, of whom two, paddling at bow and stern, were naked to the  waist save for beads and amulets worn about  the neck. The one who sat in the center was