A SUMMER VOYAGE 



jagged edges of its rough bark, and went to bed 

 with the moon, "in her third quarter," peeping 

 under the branches upon me. I had been reading 

 Stevenson's amusing " Travels with a Donkey," and 

 the lines he pretends to quote from an old play kept 

 running in my head: 



'The bed was made, the room was fit, 

 By punctual eve the stars were lit; 

 The air was sweet, the water ran; 

 No need was there for maid or man, 

 When we put up, my ass and I, 

 At God's green caravanserai." 



But the stately elm played me a trick: it slyly and 

 at long intervals let great drops of water down upon 

 me, now with a sharp smack upon my rubber coat; 

 then with a heavy thud upon the seat in the bow or 

 stern of my boat; then plump into my upturned ear, 

 or upon my uncovered arm, or with a ring into my 

 tin cup, or with a splash into my coffee-pail that 

 stood at my side full of water from a spring I had 

 just passed. After two hours' trial I found drop- 

 ping off to sleep, under such circumstances, was out 

 of the question ; so I sprang up, in no very amiable 

 mood toward my host, and drew my boat clean 

 from under the elm. I had refreshing slumber 

 thenceforth, and the birds were astir in the morning 

 long before I was. 



There is one way, at least, in which the denud- 

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