24 A SUMMER BOATING TRIP 



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 whirl- 

 pool 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 without 

 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 he grew dis- 

 gusted with my silent pursuit, and took a long turn to 

 the left up along the side of the mountain, 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 in 

 front of me. I ran ashore, covered my traps, and took 

 my way up through an orchard to a quaint little farm- 

 house. But there was not a soul about, outside or in, 

 that I could find, though the door was unfastened; so 

 I went into an open shed with the hens, and lounged 

 upon some straw, while the unloosed floods came 

 down. It was better than boating or fishing. Indeed, 

 there are few summer pleasures to be placed before 

 that of reclining at ease directly under a sloping roof, 

 after toil or travel in the hot sun, and looking out into 

 the rain-drenched air and fields. It is such a vital yet 

 soothing spectacle. We sympathize with the earth. 



