“Oh, rats!  It can’t be much worse than the old Ohio when she gets on a bender, and we’ve seen some pretty big ones in my time.  We’ll come out all right, never fear, old chap.  Every day will have to look out for itself.  What’s the use of borrowing trouble?  Not any for me.  Now, what could be finer than this view, for instance?” sweeping his hand around to include land and water, with the sun dimpling the little waves.

“Nothing on earth; it’s just grand, that’s a fact, and I’m a fool for thinking anything can get the better of a couple of fellows like you and me when we’ve got our war clothes on.  Hurrah for We, Us and Company, not forgetting the old Tramp.  Say, she’s behaving herself some, eh, pard,” laughed Thad, his face all wreathed in genial smiles again.

“She’s all right, and a credit to you.  A little cool and inclined to be draughty on a windy night, but taken all in all a thing of beauty and a joy forever.  Here’s to her—­may it be many a moon before she’s broken up into hindling wood.”

So they joked and chatted as the day wore along.

Nothing escaped their eagle eyes on the shore, and from time to time one would draw the attention of the other to some point of especial interest.

Now it might be the peculiar formation of a point of land, some trees, a swamp with hanging Spanish moss, which, however, was nothing to what they would see further south—­or anon perhaps it was some negro cabin on an elevation, with the pickaninnies playing by the door, and the strapping woman of the household leaning against the post, always smoking her clay pipe.

Maurice, with the hunter instinct, watched the flight of an osprey that was circling the river brink with an eye to dinner; and later on observed an eagle drop down into a fluttering flock of ducks, from which he evidently took his usual toll, as presently he flew heavily away, with some dark object dangling below.

About noon they had a little lunch, Thad making a pot of coffee, and otherwise the meal was called in local parlance a “snack,” which would seem to mean a pickup affair that could be eaten standing if necessary.

They wished to get this duty out of the way, for by the signs it was believed that they must be approaching Cairo, and as the junction of the two rivers is a turbulent place, with considerable craft moving about, the boys considered it wise to have their full attention fixed upon their movements.

After all, it was a mere nothing—­they simply turned a point and found themselves upon a much wider stretch of water—­and this was the famous Mississippi!

Now they were really heading south, and no matter how much colder the weather grew, it could not freeze them in and stop their flight to the desired port.

Just as Maurice had figured, it was two in the afternoon when they could really and truly say they were afloat on the big river.

In about a couple of hours they began to cast their eyes along the shore seeking a favorable place to tie up for the coming night—­ the mere thought of being adrift upon that immense yellow flood after sunset was appalling to them, though possibly by degrees they might become so accustomed to the rolling tide that it would cease to have the same sensation of alarm for them.