Being so early in the summer, the rivers were very full, so there was never any danger of running aground, although they had to face many risks in going down the rapids, when they had crossed the height of land on a ten-mile portage, and began to descend the Mattagami River.

The longest journey must come to an end at last, however, and one hot afternoon late on in June the three boats skirted the last headland of James Bay, and caught sight of the flag flying from the staff above the fish shed.
"Father, look, there is my flag!" cried Mary, in great excitement.
"Don't you remember I made an especial flag for the fleet, and sent it up by Mr.Ferrars?
Why, how nice it looks, and somehow I feel Just as if I were coming home." "That is how I feel," responded Mr.Selincourt.

"It is pretty country too, but it makes me feel downright bad to think of all these square miles of territory going to waste, so to speak, with no one but a few Indians for population, and then to remember the land hunger in England and----" But Mary had put her hands over her ears, and cried: "Oh, if you love me, spare me hearing any more about that land hunger just now! I am very sorry for all the poor people who want to own three acres and a cow, but can't afford the luxury; only just for a little while I want to forget them, and to enjoy all this beauty without any drawbacks if I can." "I am afraid you will find the drawbacks, though, in spite of your eagerness to escape them," said Mr.Selincourt, who had been quietly examining Seal Cove through a glass.

Then he handed the glass to Mary, and said in a tone too low for the boatmen to hear: "If I mistake not, the first drawback is there on the shore, mending a net." Mary took the glass and looked through it for a couple of minutes without speaking; then she gave it back, saying, with a shudder: "What a horrid-looking man!" "Rather a low type by the look of him.

But you must not judge all the population by your first glimpse of it.