Chapter 4

"And that timid fawn starts not with fear,
When I steal to her secret bower;
And that young May violet to me is dear,
And I visit the silent streamlet near,
To look on the lovely flower."

Bryant, "An Indian Story," ii.11-15

The ark, as the floating habitation of the Hutters was generally
called, was a very simple contrivance. A large flat, or scow,
composed the buoyant part of the vessel; and in its centre, occupying
the whole of its breadth, and about two thirds of its length, stood
a low fabric, resembling the castle in construction, though made
of materials so light as barely to be bullet-proof. As the sides
of the scow were a little higher than usual, and the interior of
the cabin had no more elevation than was necessary for comfort,
this unusual addition had neither a very clumsy nor a very obtrusive
appearance. It was, in short, little more than a modern canal-boat,
though more rudely constructed, of greater breadth than common, and
bearing about it the signs of the wilderness, in its bark-covered
posts and roof. The scow, however, had been put together with some
skill, being comparatively light, for its strength, and sufficiently
manageable. The cabin was divided into two apartments, one of which
served for a parlor, and the sleeping-room of the father, and the
other was appropriated to the uses of the daughters. A very simple
arrangement sufficed for the kitchen, which was in one end of the
scow, and removed from the cabin, standing in the open air; the
ark being altogether a summer habitation.

The "and-bush," as Hurry in his ignorance of English termed it, is
quite as easily explained. In many parts of the lake and river,
where the banks were steep and high, the smaller trees and larger
bushes, as has been already mentioned, fairly overhung the stream,
their branches not unfrequently dipping into the water. In some
instances they grew out in nearly horizontal lines, for thirty or
forty feet. The water being uniformly deepest near the shores,
where the banks were highest and the nearest to a perpendicular,
Hutter had found no difficulty in letting the ark drop under one
of these covers, where it had been anchored with a view to conceal
its position; security requiring some such precautions, in his
view of the case. Once beneath the trees and bushes, a few stones
fastened to the ends of the branches had caused them to bend
sufficiently to dip into the river; and a few severed bushes,
properly disposed, did the rest. The reader has seen that this
cover was so complete as to deceive two men accustomed to the woods,
and who were actually in search of those it concealed; a circumstance
that will be easily understood by those who are familiar