It is a good workmanlike
piece, and, when you learn to hold it straight, you can trust it to
shoot."
That evening James, having made all his preparations, said goodbye to
the general and to his other friends, and joined the scouts who were
gathering by the shore of the lake. Ten canoes, each of which would
carry three men, were lying by the shore.
"Nat, you and Jonathan will take this young fellow with you. He is a
lad, and it is his first scout. You will find him of the right sort. He
was with Braddock, and after that affair hurried up here to see
fighting on the lakes. He can't have two better nurses than you are. He
is going to be an officer in the king's army, and wants to learn as
much as he can, so that, if he ever gets with his men into such a mess
as Braddock tumbled into, he will know what to do with them."
"All right, captain! We will do our best for him. It's risky sort of
business ours for a greenhorn, but if he is anyways teachable, we will
soon make a man of him."
The speaker was a wiry, active man of some forty years old, with a
weatherbeaten face, and a keen gray eye. Jonathan, his comrade, was a
head taller, with broad shoulders, powerful limbs, and a quiet but
good-tempered face.
"That's so, isn't it, Jonathan?" Nat asked.
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