He returned to his bear robe by the fire where he had sat for many days whittling a piece of pine. He bent over the fire to melt lead in an iron spoon, and poured it out to cool and harden in a hollow of the wood. He fastened a piece of tin to one end of the carving. Then he brought out oil paints and worked carefully with a brush.
   Satisfied at last, the boy sat back on his heels. Before him lay a canoe one foot long. It looked like his father's big birchbark loaded with packs and supplies for a journey. An Indian figure knelt just back of the middle, grasping a paddle. And along the bottom were carved these words. Please put me back in water. I am paddle to the sea.