RUNNING THE RAPIDS. 81 



flight, started downward. Away, away they flew. 

 If before they went like birds, they went like 

 eagles noAV. 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 was 

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

 took the leap together. Down, down we sank 

 into the feathery foam ; the froth flung high over 

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

 pool had 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 



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