16 PEPACTON: A SUMMER VOYAGE. 



down the rifts, they having no time to take to the. 

 holes. At one point, as I rounded an elbow in the 

 stream, a black eagle sprang from the top of a dead 

 tree, and flapped hurriedly away. A kingbird gave 

 chase, and disappeared for some moments in the gulf 

 between the great wings of the eagle, and I imagined 

 him seated upon his back delivering his puny blows 

 upon the royal bird. I interrupted two or three 

 minks fishing and hunting along shore. They would 

 dart under the bank when they saw me, then pres- 

 ently thrust out their sharp, weasel-like noses, to see 

 if the danger was imminent. At one point, in a little 

 cove behind the willows, I surprised some school- 

 girls, with skirts amazingly abbreviated, wading and 

 playing in the water. And as much surprised as 

 any, I aci sure, was that hard-worked looking house- 

 wife, when I came up from under the bank in front 

 of her house, and with pail in hand appeared at her 

 door and asked for milk, taking the precaution to in 

 timate that I had no objection to the yellow scum 

 that is supposed to rise on a fresh article of that kind. 



" What kind of milk do you watit? " 



" The best you have. Give me two quarts of it," 

 I replied. 



" What do you want to do with it ? " with an anx- 

 ious tone, as if I might want to blow up something 

 or burn her barns with it. 



" Oh, drink it," I answered, as if I frequently put 

 milk to that use. 



" Well, I suppose I can get you some ; " and she 



