PEPACTON 



the river about a mile ahead, and I put my paddle 

 into the water with all my force to reach this cover 

 before the storm. It was neck and neck most of 

 the way. The storm had the wind, and I had it 

 in my teeth. The bridge was at Shavertown, and 

 it was by a close shave that I got under it before 

 the rain was upon me. How it poured and rattled 

 and whipped in around the abutment of the bridge 

 to reach me! I looked out well satisfied upon the 

 foaming water, upon the wet, unpainted houses and 

 barns of the Shavertowners, and upon the trees, 



"Caught and cuffed by the gale." 



Another traveler the spotted-winged nighthawk 

 was also roughly used by the storm. He faced 

 it bravely, and beat and beat, but was unable to 

 stem it, or even hold his own ; gradually he drifted 

 back, till he was lost to sight in the wet obscurity. 

 The water in the river rose an inch while I waited, 

 about three quarters of an hour. Only one man, 

 I reckon, saw me in Shavertown, and he came and 

 gossiped with me from the bank above when the 

 storm had abated. 



The second night I stopped at the sign of the 

 elm-tree. The woods were too wet, and I concluded 

 to make my boat my bed. A superb elm, on a 

 smooth grassy plain a few feet from the water's 

 edge, looked hospitable in the twilight, and I drew 

 my boat up beneath it. I hung my clothes on the 

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