A SUMMER BOATING TRIP 9 



ware is only one mile distant, and I chose this as the 

 easiest road from the station to it. A young farmer 

 helped me carry the boat to the water, but did not stay 

 to see me off; only some calves feeding alongshore wit- 

 nessed my embarkation. It would have been a godsend 

 to boys, but there were no boys about. I stuck on a rift 

 before I had gone ten yards, and saw with misgiving 

 the paint transferred from the bottom of my little 

 scow to the tops of the stones thus early in the journey. 

 But I was soon making fair headway, and taking trout 

 for my dinner as I floated along. My first mishap was 

 when I broke the second joint of my rod on a bass, 

 and the first serious impediment to my progress was 

 when I encountered the trunk of a prostrate elm 

 bridging the stream within a few inches of the surface. 

 My rod mended and the elm cleared, I anticipated 

 better sailing when I should reach the Delaware itself; 

 but I found on this day and on subsequent days that 

 the Delaware has a way of dividing up that is very 

 embarrassing to the navigator. It is a stream of many 

 minds: its waters cannot long agree to go all in the 

 same channel, and whichever branch I took I was 

 pretty sure to wish I had taken one of the others. I was 

 constantly sticking on rifts, where I would have to 

 dismount, or running full tilt into willow banks, where 

 I would lose my hat or endanger my fishing-tackle. 

 On the whole, the result of my first day's voyaging was 

 not encouraging. I made barely eight miles, and my 

 ardor was a good deal dampened, to say nothing about 

 my clothing. In mid-afternoon I went to a well-to-do- 

 looking farmhouse and got some milk, which I am 

 certain the thrifty housewife skimmed, for its blueness 

 infected my spirits, and I went into camp that night 



