28 PEPACTON : A SUMMER VOYAGE. 



some letters to my friends before I braved all these 

 dangers. So they marched me up the street, pointing 

 out to their chums what they had found. 



" Going way to Phil What place is that near 

 where the river goes into the sea ? " 



"Philadelphia?" 



" Yes ; thinks he may go way there. Won't he 

 have fun ? " 



The boys escorted me about the town, then back 

 to the river, and got in their boat and came down to 

 the bend, where they could see me go through the 

 whirlpool and pass the binocle (I am not sure about 

 the orthography of the word, but I suppose it means 

 a double, or a sort of mock eddy). I looked back as 

 I shot over the rough current beside a gentle vortex, 

 and saw them watching me with great interest. Rock 

 eddy, also, was quite harmless, and I passed it with- 

 out any preliminary survey. 



I nooned at Sodom, and found good milk in a 

 humble cottage. In the afternoon I was amused by 

 a great blue heron that kept flying up in advance of 

 me. Every mile or so, as I rounded some point, I 

 would come unexpectedly upon him, till finally ho 

 grew disgusted with my silent pursuit, and took. a 

 ong turn to the left up along the side of the mount- 

 tdn, and passed back up the river, uttering a hoarse, 

 low note. 



The wind still boded rain, and about four o'clock, 

 announced by deep-toned thunder and portentous 

 clouds, it began to charge down the mountain side U 



