"Oh, yes," said Hinpoha. "They went in a yacht called the _Argo_, didn"t they, and the hunters called themselves the _Argonauts_, wasn"t that it?"
"Oh, Hinpoha," groaned Migwan, "how did you ever manage to get a pa.s.sing grade in "Myth?""
"The only kind of myths Hinpoha cared about were the "Hero and Leander"
kind," said Sahwah slily. "She knew that one by heart."
Hinpoha blushed and made awful grimaces at Sahwah.
"I should think that one would appeal to you particularly, Sahwah," said Migwan; "you"re so fond of swimming."
Sahwah snorted. "Leander was a fool. It was all right to swim the h.e.l.lespont on moonlight nights when the sea was smooth, but if he"d had any brains in his head he"d have rigged up a breeches-buoy for use in stormy weather and gone across in safety and style."
There was a loud burst of laughter at the picture of the romantic Leander traveling across the h.e.l.lespont in a breeches-buoy, and when that had subsided Uncle Teddy remarked, "Well, have you made up your minds what you want to call this expedition in search of the moose? By the way, Mother, are you absolutely sure it was a moose and not a bossy cow you saw?"
Aunt Clara did not deign to answer his teasing.
"The War Canoe would make an awfully good looking ship _Argo_,"
said Migwan thoughtfully. "The original _Argo_ was an open boat and not a yacht, as the scholarly Hinpoha just intimated. We ought to combine the two and have a joint Argonautic Expedition and Calydonian Hunt."
They all thought this was a fine idea.
"Who will be Jason?" asked the Captain. "Wasn"t he the captain, or the first mate, or the vessel owner, or something, the time they went looking for the golden calf?"
"The Golden Fleece, not the golden calf," said Migwan quickly, while they all laughed harder than ever at the Captain"s floundering attempt to quote mythology.
"Well, the Golden Fleece, then," said the Captain. "Who"s going to be Jason?"
"Whoever"s commander of the trip will be Jason," replied Uncle Teddy.
"Who will that be?" asked Sahwah.
"Whoever"s Chief at the time we go," replied Uncle Teddy.
"That will be you, because you"re Chief this week," said Sahwah.
"But Aunt Clara is Chief, too," protested Katherine.
"Then there will be a Mr. and Mrs. Jason," said Sahwah promptly. "And all the rest of us will be Argonauts."
"I protest," said Uncle Teddy, with a twinkle in his eye. "If there"s a Mrs. Jason on board Jason himself won"t have a word to say about the expedition. He"ll be nothing but a figurehead. He"ll be the original Argo-_nought_!"
"You forget that the figurehead was the most important part of the ship in the eyes of the Greeks," said Aunt Clara sweetly.
"If we don"t hurry and get started," said Mr. Evans sagely, "that moose will be nowhere to be found. If you are going to argue as long over every detail of the hunt as you have about this much of it, the moose will have time to get clear over the Arctic Circle before we ever land on the other sh.o.r.e. I move we call ourselves the Argue-nots and go over this afternoon without delay. This weather is too fine to be wasted on dry land."
Accordingly, right after dinner, the second great Argonautic Expedition put out to sea. Mrs. Evans, who had a headache, offered to stay at home and keep Sandhelo company and watch the island.
The s.p.a.ce under the seats of the _Argo II_, as she was temporarily re-christened, was stowed full of "supper makin"s," for they planned to stay until after nightfall.
It was not hard to imagine themselves engaged in one of the romantic quests of olden times, for the great war canoe with her rows of paddlers, speeding through the wide open water, was a sight to set the blood dancing in the veins and thrill the imagination. The forest on the northern sh.o.r.e seemed to spread out wider and wider as they approached it, and grew wilder and more dark looking. To their cityfied eyes the dense growth of underbrush between the trees was the wilderness itself.
Somewhere in the back of every man"s brain there slumbers the instinct of the explorer, a legacy from his far off ancestors who boldly set out to discover the unknown places of the earth, and even the modern boy and girl thrill with delight at the prospect of entering some new, wild region.
Landing was extremely difficult because there was no sand beach, and great care had to be exercised that the canoe was not dashed on the rocks and her sides ripped. Both Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy stepped overboard in water up to their knees and held the boat steady while the rest climbed out onto the rocks. This was an exciting business, for every few seconds a wave would wash up over those rocks, and if the leap was not made just at the right instant, the unwary lander got a pair of wet feet. But that only added to the fun. When all were out the canoe was pulled up and carried back a safe distance and left upside down with the paddles underneath it, so the sun could not shine on them and crack them. Sunshine, which gives life to most things, is absolutely fatal to wet paddle blades.
It was hard walking. The woods were swampy in places and there were very few paths. But almost as soon as they landed they saw signs of the moose. In the soft mud and near the sh.o.r.e were his footprints, and numerous trees bore evidence that he had nibbled their twigs, while there were other marks on the bark which Uncle Teddy explained were made by his striking his antlers against the trunks and branches. Sir Moose himself was nowhere to be seen. His trail led into the woods and they were doing their best to follow. Of course they were making enough noise to scare away a herd of buffalos, but there didn"t seem to be any way to remedy the matter. Hinpoha would shriek when she stepped on a rolling stick, thinking it was a snake, and Katherine was continually tripping over something and sprawling face downward.
"The Argonautic half of the Expedition came up to our expectations,"
said Migwan, as they floundered on, "but the Calydonian Hunt seems to be a wild goose chase."
"Where do mooses stay when they are in the woods?" asked Hinpoha, falling over a root and pausing to rub her ankle.
"On the ground," said the Captain, trying to be funny.
"How very odd," said Hinpoha. "I had an idea they climbed up into a tree and built a nest. I may not know much about your old mythology, but I do know a few things about a moose."
"Maybe you do," replied the Captain with that maddening twinkle in his eye, "but anybody that calls the plural of "moose" "mooses" couldn"t be expected to know much about them."
"Oh, well," said Hinpoha, laughing with the rest, "have it your own way.
By the way, what is the plural--meece? Anyway, I wasn"t talking to you in the first place when I asked my question. I was talking to Uncle Teddy, and I"m going to ask him again. Where would you go to look for a moose in the woods?"
"They like shallow water in summer and slow-moving streams," replied Uncle Teddy. "They wade out and eat the plants growing in the water."
"I suppose if we see him at all we"ll see him that way," said Hinpoha.
"We"ll probably only get a glimpse of him from a distance."
"Probably," agreed Uncle Teddy, "unless----"
"Unless what?" asked Sahwah, p.r.i.c.king up her ears.
Uncle Teddy smiled mysteriously. Then from his pocket he produced something which looked like a trumpet made of birchbark.
"What is it?" they all chorused, crowding around him.
"Wait and see," he said, still with that mysterious smile.
He did not seem to be going to do anything with the strange thing he held in his hand. He led the way through the trees, patiently holding aside the branches for the girls to go through, often stopping to examine a twig or patch of bark. When they had been going some time they came out on the bank of a river. Here was an open s.p.a.ce and Uncle Teddy called the procession to a halt.
"Everybody find a comfortable place and sit absolutely still," he ordered.
"What"s going to happen?" asked Hinpoha curiously.
"Nothing--very likely," replied Uncle Teddy tantalizingly.
"May we climb a tree?" asked the Captain.
"Surely," replied Uncle Teddy, "if that"s your idea of a comfortable place to sit. And if you will promise to be absolutely still when you get there and not fall out at the wrong time." The Captain swung himself up into a big cedar tree that stood nearby, and sat with his feet dangling over their heads.
"What are you doing, Cap?" called Slim from the ground, "going to heaven?"