“I’m glad you think so,” said Luke. “I did as well as I could.” “Yes,” said the elder man, “and now I’m about ready to take you in with me, give you a share in the business. I want some one to help me run it, make it larger. We can double it, easy, if we stick to it and spread out. No reason why you shouldn’t make a fortune out of it, and have a house just like this on the other corner, when you’re my age.” Luke’s thoughts were wandering a little. They went out from the stuffy room, beyond the dusty street, and the jangling cars, and the gilt sign, and the shop full of dry-goods and notions, and the high desks in the office--out to the dim, cool forest, where Snowberry and Partridge-berry and Wood-Magic grow. He heard the free winds rushing over the tree-tops, and saw the trail winding away before him in the green shade. “You are very kind,” said he, “I hope you will not be disappointed in me. Sometimes I think, perhaps--” “Not at all, not at all,” said the other. “It’s all right. You’re well fitted for it. And then, there’s another thing. I guess you like my daughter Amanda pretty well. Eh? I’ve watched you, young man. I’ve had my eye on you! Now, of course, I can’t say much about it--never can be sure of these kind of things, you know--but if you and she--” The voice went on rolling out words complacently. But something strange was working in Luke’s blood, and other voices were sounding faintly in his ears. He heard the lisping of the leaves on the little poplar-trees, the whistle of the black duck’s wings as he circled in the air, the distant drumming of the grouse on his log, the rumble of the water-fall in the River of Rocks. The spray cooled his face. He saw the fish rising along the pool, and a stag feeding among the lily-pads. “I don’t know how to thank you, Mr. Wilson,” said he at last, when the elder man stopped talking. “You have certainly treated me most generously. The only question is, whether--But to-morrow night, I think, with your consent, I will speak to your daughter. To-night I am going down to the store; there is a good deal of work to do on the books.” But when Luke came to the store, he did not go in. He walked along the street till he came to the river. The water-side was strangely deserted. Everybody was at supper. A couple of schooners were moored at the wharf. The Portland steamer had gone out. The row-boats hung idle at their little dock. Down the river, drifting and dancing lightly over the opalescent ripples, following the gentle turns of the current which flowed past the end of the dock where Luke was standing, came a white canoe, empty and astray. III The White Canoe “That looks just like my old canoe,” said he. “Somebody must have left it adrift up the river. I wonder how it floated down here without being picked up.” He put out his hand and caught it, as it touched the dock.