26 PEP ACTON : A SUMMER VOYAGE. 



chimney-swallows entering the chamber through a 

 stove-pipe hole in the roof, and gluing their nests to 

 the sides of the rafters, like the barn-swallows. 



I was now, on the third day, well down in the 

 wilds of Colchester, with a current that made between 

 two and three miles an hour, just a summer idler's 

 pace. The atmosphere of the river had improved 

 much since the first day was, indeed, without 

 taint, and the water was sweet and good. There 

 were farm-houses at intervals of a mile or so ; but 

 the amount of tillable land in the river valley or on 

 the adjacent mountains was very small. Occasionally 

 there would be forty or fifty acres of flat, usually in 

 grass or corn, with a thrifty -looking farm-house. One 

 could see how surely the land made the house and its 

 surroundings ; good land bearing good buildings, and 

 poor land poor. 



In mid-forenoon I reached the- long placid eddy at 

 Downsville, and here again fell in with two boys. 

 They were out paddling about in a boat when I drew 

 near, and they evidently regarded me in the light of 

 a rare prize which fortune had wafted them. 



" Ain't you glad we come, Benny ? " I heard one 

 of them observe to the .other, as they were conduct- 

 ing me to the best place to land. They were bright, 

 good boys, off the same piece as my acquaintance of 

 the day before, and about the same ages, differing 

 only in being village boys. With what curiosity 

 dhey looked me over! Where had I come from 

 where was I going ; how long had I been on th 



