Far away down the great river were cities where money was plenty, and where lumber and farm products were in demand.

There were not half enough steamboats on the river, and freights were high; but the vast waterway with its ceaseless current was free to all.

Why should not he do as others had done and were constantly doing--raft his goods to a market?
It would take time, of course; but a few months of the autumn and winter could be spared as well as not, and so it was finally decided that the venture should be undertaken.
It was not to be a timber raft only.

Major Caspar did not care to attempt the navigating of a huge affair, such as his entire stock of sawed material would have made, nor could he afford the expense of a large crew.

Then, too, while ready money was scarce in his neighborhood, the prairie wheat crop of that season was unusually good.
So he exchanged half his lumber for wheat, and devoted his leisure during the summer to the construction of a raft with the remainder.
This raft contained the very choice of the mill's output for that season--squared timbers, planks, and boards enough to load a ship.