PEPACTON: A SUMMER VOYAGE. 31 



roily from the shower for fly-fishing. Another farm- 

 house attracted me, but there was no one at home ; 

 BO I picked a quart of strawberries in the meadow 

 in front, not minding the wet grass, and about 

 six o'clock, thinking another storm that had been 

 threatening on my right had miscarried, I pushed off, 

 and went floating down into the deepening gloom of 

 the river valley. The mountains, densely wooded 

 from base to summit, shut in the view on every 

 hand. They cut in from the right and from the left, 

 one ahead of the other, matching like the teeth of 

 an enormous trap; the river was caught and bent, 

 but not long detained by them. Presently I saw the 

 rain creeping slowly over them in my rear, for the 

 wind had changed ; but I apprehended nothing but 

 a moderate sundown drizzle, such as we often get 

 from the tail end of a shower, and drew up in the 

 eddy of a big rock under an overhanging tree till it 

 should have passed. But it did not pass ; it thick- 

 ened and deepened, and reached a steady pour by the 

 time I had calculated the sun would be gilding the 

 mountain tops. I had wrapped my rubber coat 

 about my blankets and groceries, and bared my back 

 to the storm. In sullen silence I saw the night set- 

 tling down and the rain increasing ; my roof tree 

 gave way, and every leaf poured its accumulated 

 rops upon me. There were streams and splashes 

 where before there had been little more than a mist. 

 I was getting well soaked and uncomplimentary in 

 Say remarks on the weather. A saucy cat-bird, near 



