THE RIVER 123 



The current by the port runs back on the wharf side 

 towards its source, and the foam drifts up the river instead 

 of down. Green flags on a sandbank far out in the stream , 

 their roots covered and their bent tips only visible, now 

 swing with the water and now heel over with the breeze. 

 The Edwin and Angelina lies at anchor, waiting to be 

 warped into her berth, her sails furled, her green painted 

 water-barrel lashed by the stern, her tiller idle after the 

 long and toilsome voyage from Rochester. 



For there are perils of the deep even to those who only 

 go down to it in barges. Barge as she is, she is not with- 

 out a certain beauty, and a certain interest, inseparable 

 from all that has received the buffet of the salt water, 

 and over which the salt spray has flown. Barge too, as 

 she is, she bears her part in the commerce of the world. 

 The very architecture on the shore is old-fashioned where 

 these bluff-bowed vessels come, narrow streets and over- 

 hanging houses, boat anchors in the windows, sails and 

 tarry ropes ; and is there not a Row Barge Inn some- 

 where ? 



" Hoy, ahoy ! " 



The sudden shout startles me, and, glancing round, I 

 find an empty black barge, high out of the water, floating 

 helplessly down upon me with the stream. Noiselessly 

 the great hulk had drifted upon me ; as it came the light 

 glinted on the wavelets before the bow, quick points of 

 brilliant light. But two strokes with the sculls carried 

 me out of the way. 



