the midday
sun
In time they launched their craft on the bright , smooth flood of the river of the Ouisconsins , stained coppery-red by its far-off , unknown course in the north , where it had bathed leagues of the roots of pine and tamarack and cedar . They passed on steadily westward , hour after hour , with the current of this great stream , among little islands covered with timber ; passed along bars of white sand and flats of hardwood ; beyond forest-covered knolls , in the openings of which one might now and again see great vistas of a scenery now peaceful and now bold , with turreted knolls and sweeping swards of green , as though some noble house of old England were set back secluded within these wide and well-kept grounds . The country now rapidly lost its marshy character , and as they approached the mouth of the great stream , it being now well toward the middle of the summer , they reached , suddenly and without forewarning , that which they long had sought . The sturdy paddlers were bending to their tasks , each broad back swinging in unison forward and back over the thwart , each brown throat bared to the air , each swart head uncovered to the glare of the midday sun , each narrow-bladed paddle keeping unison with those before and behind , the hand of the paddler never reaching higher than his chin , since each had learned the labor-saving fashion of the Indian canoeman . The day was bright and cheery , the air not too ardent , and across the coppery waters there stretched slants of shadow from the embowering forest trees . They were alone , these travelers ; yet for the time at least part of them seemed care-free and quite abandoned to the sheer zest of life . There arose again , after the fashion of the _ voyageurs _ , the measure of the paddling song , without which indeed the paddler had not been able to perform his labor at the thwart . ''