PEPACTON 



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 disgusted 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 farmhouse. 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 sooth- 

 ing spectacle. We sympathize with the earth. We 

 know how good a bath is, and the unspeakable 

 deliciousness of water to a parched tongue. The 

 office of the sunshine is slow, subtle, occult, unsus- 

 pected ; but when the clouds do their work, the 

 benefaction is so palpable and copious, so direct and 

 wholesale, that all creatures take note of it, and for 

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