RUNNING THE RAPIDS. 81 



flight, started downward. Away, away they flew. 

 If before they went like birds, they went like 

 eagles now. No keeping in line here ; each man 

 for himself in this wild race ; and woe to boatman 

 and to boat if an oar should break or oar-bolt 

 snap. Close after John, gaining at every rush, 

 my light boat sped. No thought for others, all 

 eye and nerve for self, with a royal upleaping of 

 blood, as my face, wet with the spray, clove 

 through the air, I flashed until the fall w^as 

 reached, and, side by side, with trailing oars, we 

 took the leap together. Down, down w^e sank 

 into the feathery foam ; the froth flung high over 

 us as we splashed into it. Down, down, as if the 

 pool liad no bottom, we went, our boats half full 

 of -spume and foam, till the reacting water under- 

 neath caught the light shells up and flung them 

 out of the yeast and mist, dripping inside and out, 

 from stem to stern, as sea-birds rising from a 

 plunge. No stop nor stay for breathing here. 

 Around the curve, by no effort of mine leading 

 the race, I went, swept down another reach and 

 over another fall, and, without power to pause a 

 moment, entered into the third before I had time 

 to think. Steeper than all behind, it lay before 

 me, but straight, and for a distance smooth, for 

 aught I could see as I shook the spray from my 

 eyes, until it narrowed, and the converging tor- 

 rent met between two overhanging rocks in one 



4* F 



