Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/42

 snagged more times than I can remember, I have had holes punched in me by rocks, and some of my ribs have been fractured; but I am a pretty good boat yet. At least Joe thinks so, for he is going to take me somewhere this coming summer, probably up into Michigan to run the rapids of the Menominee; and, to tell you the honest truth, I am looking forward to that trip with fear and trembling. I have heard Uncle Joe say that those rapids were something to make a man's hair stand on end; but if my master says 'go', I shall take him through if I can. I have carried him through some dangerous places, and whenever I have got him into trouble, it has been owing to his own carelessness or mismanagement."

"I suppose he thinks a great deal of you?" said I.

"Well, he ought to," replied the canoe, with a self-satisfied air. "I have stuck to him through thick and thin for a good many years. I was the very first plaything he owned, after he took it into his head that he was getting too big to ride a rocking-horse. He used to paddle me around on a duck pond, where the water