LAUGHING WATERS] [ 



keys, but the quality of tone differs essentially. 

 Some are loud and portentous; others, melodious, 

 liquid gurgles. In one place the voice implies an 

 intimate and confidential mood, so gentle, so ex- 

 quisite, that the full import of the musical conver- 

 sation is felt only in midstream, whispers and 

 murmurs which have almost a ventriloquial erfedt. 



Countless bubbles glide down the current and 

 vanish one by one. Sunbeams dance over the 

 rapids and out upon the pool, and then, as the 

 sun goes under a cloud, the stream as quickly 

 takes on a somber mood. Presently comes the 

 melodious patter of rain-drops on the ground, an 

 even, sustained note, very different from any voice 

 of the brook as it dimples and answers the rain, 

 one soft voice replying to the other. Already little 

 pools form in hollows of the rock and reflect light, 

 so that the face of Nature is perceptibly brighter. 



Considering this aspedt of the streams, it is easy 

 to see how the primitive mind came to personify 

 them, since the brooks have motion, voice and 

 expression, ripple and laugh in the sunshine and 

 are responsive to the wind and the sky. They are 

 still divinities to the fisherman with whom he 

 comes into an ever closer affiliation, as gentle and 



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