Only we didn't know it.
We rowed way up into the end of Nick's Cove and pulled the skiff part way up on shore.

One thing I noticed and that was that some of the trees around there stood in the water.

I knew that was on account of the lake being swollen, because there had been so much rain lately.
Even over at Temple Camp the water was up to the spring-board, so that when we jumped on it, it splashed right into the lake.
"Cove is pretty big after all the rain," Bert said.

And then, sure enough, he looked around and broke a branch off a tree and pulled the twigs off it.

"That'll do to poke around with," he said, "now come ahead." "You and your stick are like Uncle Jeb and his pipe," I told him.
He said, "Now we'll wend our way through old Nick's Valley.