There
was plenty of dry wood. How stupid he had been not to think of it
before! Acting upon this idea, he quickly had a cheerful blaze
snapping and crackling in the little stove, which soon began to diffuse
a welcome warmth throughout the room. By a glance at his watch--a
small silver one that had been his father's when he was a boy--Winn
found the night to be nearly gone. He was greatly comforted by the
thought that in less than two hours daylight would reveal his situation
and give him a chance to do something. Still, the lonely waiting was
very tedious, the boy was weary, and the warmth of the fire made him
sleepy. At first he struggled against the overpowering drowsiness, but
finally he yielded to it, and, with his head sunk on his folded arms,
which rested on the table, was soon buried in a slumber as profound as
that of the earlier night.
At daylight the unguided raft was seen in the "Slant Crossing" by the
crew of an up-bound steamboat, and they wondered at the absence of all
signs of life aboard it. Every now and then the drifting mass of
timber touched on some sand-bar or reef, but the current always swung
it round, so that it slid off and resumed its erratic voyage. At
length, after floating swiftly and truly down a long straight chute,
the _Venture_ was seized by an eddy at its foot, revolved slowly
several times, and then reluctantly dragged into a false channel on the
western side of a long, heavily-timbered island.
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