So far so good; but happy
Hendrik was unpleasantly surprised to learn that the new help
were for leaving at once. Finally he made this offer: If they
would stay till September first, and so leave all in "good shape
fer der vinter," he would, besides the wages agreed, give them
the canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap now hanging in
the barn, and carry them in his wagon as far as the Five- mile
portage from Lake George to Schroon River, down which they could
go to its junction with the upper Hudson, which, followed up
through forty miles of rapids and hard portages, would bring them
to a swampy river that enters from the southwest, and ten miles
up this would bring them to Jesup's Lake, which is two miles wide
and twelve miles long. This country abounded with game, but was
so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it was deserted.
There was only one possible answer to such an offer -- they stayed.
In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn,
stripped off some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some
massive timber thwarts, repaired the ribs, and when dry and
gummed, its weight was below one hundred pounds; a saving of at
least forty pounds on the soggy thing he crossed the lake in that
first day on the farm.
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