There was one great shout of "Oh-h!" from the girls and boys, and then a silence born of ecstasy.
"Here's the man-of-war!" called Mr. Evans, enjoying to the utmost the pleasure caused by the arrival of the big canoe, "now, where's the crew?"
"Here, here!" they all cried, tumbling over each other in their haste to get to the landing and into the boat.
"All aboard, my hearties," cried Uncle Teddy, cutting the canoe loose from the launch and holding it steady against the pier.
"But dinner's ready," protested Aunt Clara. "Can't you wait until afterwards for your ride?"
"Not one minute," her husband solemnly assured her. "Not one of us will be able to eat a mouthful until we have had a ride on the new hobby horse. Dinners will keep, but new war canoes won't."
"You're as bad as the boys and girls," said Aunt Clara, shaking her finger at him knowingly. "I believe you want to go worse than any of them."
"I surely do," replied Uncle Teddy. "It was all I could do on the way over to keep from climbing over the back of the launch into the canoe and coming home in her."
"I'm going to be bow paddler," cried Sahwah, hastily scrambling into the front seat and getting her paddle ready for action.
"We won't need much in the paddling line with those sails," said Uncle Teddy, "but we can be ready in case we become becalmed."
"'Become becalmed,'" said Migwan mischievously, "doesn't that sound as if you had your mouth full of something sticky?"
Uncle Teddy wrinkled up his nose in a comical grimace and ordered her to take her seat in the canoe without any more impudence.
As most of the seats were wide enough for two to sit on there was plenty of room for all sixteen of them. Mrs. Evans hung back at first, but at Aunt Clara's urging ventured to sit beside her. Uncle Teddy took up the stern paddle and shoved out into the lake; the wind caught the sails, and away went the canoe like a bird. It was wonderful going with the wind, but when they decided it was time to turn around and come home they found that the sails absolutely refused to work backward, so they lowered them and paddled. As the canoe leaped forward under the steady, even strokes, the Winnebagos began to sing:
"Pull long, pull strong, my bonnie brave crew, The winds sweep over the waters blue, Oh, blow they high, or blow they low, It's all the same to Wohelo!