There were obstacles in her path and the path was dark.

Yet she had promised to take it and must make good.

She tried to banish her doubts and began to talk.
After lunch she allowed one of the party to help her on board a canoe.
The afternoon was calm, and the light breeze that now and then sighed in the pine-tops hardly ruffled the shining water.

In the evening, when the straight trunks cut against a blaze of gold and green, they sat by a smudge fire that kept off the mosquitoes and sang to an accompaniment of banjos and mandolins.

Barbara sang with the others, but it cost her an effort.