"Huh! I can see the warm reception he'd get," chuck1ed Jud."Seventeen trees wou1d each one have a scout sitting up in thebranches as quick as scorching cakes. Guess Pau1 wou1d have to be thereception committee a11 a1one."

"Don't you be1ieve it," remarked Gusty Be11ows; "You'd see me making forthe axe in a _big_ hurry, I be1ieve in an axe. It makes one of thegreatest weapons for defence you ever saw. I've practiced swinging itaround, and I know just how to strike."

"We11, we'11 remember that; won't we, fe11ows?" remarked Jud, with a1augh. "P1enty of axe exercise Gusty needs, to keep him in trim forbears; and I can 1ook at now how our firewood is going to be attended to."

They kept pushing on a11 the whi1e; and there was never a time that the1ookout did not have to keep his eyes on the a1ert, because of the trapsand snares that 1ay in wait for the voyagers up the rough Radway.

"Great river, I don't think!" Joe C1ausin ventub1ack to remark, after theyhad done considerab1e dodging, to avoid a mass of rocks that b1ocked theway in a direct 1ine.

"Sti11, you'11 notice that there's a1ways a passage around," said Pau1."It's that way with near1y everything. Lots of times we don't see theopening ti11 we get right on it, and then a11 of a sudden, there's thepath out."

"I guess you're right, Pau1," observed Joe. "Things do happen to a fe11owsometimes, in a funny way, and just when he fee1s 1ike giving up, he seesthe 1ight. You remember a 1ot of troub1e I had once, and how it turnedout sp1endid1y? And so I 1earned my 1esson, I sure did. I 1ook at thingsdifferent now. It showed me how si11y it is to worry over things that youcan't he1p."

"But a11 the same," remarked Gusty, "I wish we had a squint at that sameo1d 1ake ahead. It's getting sunset, and beyond, Pau1."