WEIRD-LIKE RETREAT. 133 



river, and our work was almost suspended in conse- 

 quence. But at length the looked-for frost came, 

 and with it that clear, bright weather that makes a 

 northern winter so enjoyable. After dinner I buckled 

 on my skates, and followed upwards the edge of the 

 stream to discover new fishing-grounds, for I was but 

 a comparative stranger in the neighbourhood. You 

 know the feelings that actuate the schoolboy when 

 released from control, and he has the whole day 

 before him for pleasure or adventure ; or of the colt 

 when he is relieved from the confining harness, and 

 is turned out into the pasture-field. Similar sensa- 

 tions I had as mile after mile fled by, and distant 

 objects, never seen before, were passed and left far 

 behind. From the right entered the parent river, a 

 sullen, deep-looking brook. Over its surface many a 

 giant pine-tree leant, and in places spruce and birch 

 came in contact at -their summits, shutting out the 

 light of heaven, and making a retreat attractive from 

 its sombre solitude. A child of the forest I may call 

 myself ; was it to be wondered, then, that this weird- 

 like retreat had an attractive, an all-powerful fasci- 

 nation, that induced me to penetrate its darkest 

 recesses, and seek to learn more of the almost stag- 

 nant flowing rivulet ? 



( The ice was smooth on the Penobscot, and here 

 it was, if possible, more so ; for no breeze could reach 

 the surface of the water, so dense was the dark 

 green net-work of cedar and hemlock that formed 

 its marginal walls. Happily I sped on ; bend after 



