16 PEPACTON: A SUMMER VOYAGE. 



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

 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 am 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 want? " 



" 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 



