" THE STEPPING-STONES:' 229 



shall find sleeping quarters, a place not without 

 its special interest ; and there we will meet ; the 

 river will be your sure guide. Fish the deeper 

 pools, disregarding the shallows and rapids; 

 as there is a wind, there is a prospect of 

 sport. When you come to the "Stepping- 

 stones," you are at Seathwaite : they are a good 

 mark. 



AMICUS. Well met. These, I presume, are 

 the "Stepping-stones." Here I have been 

 waiting for you, a spot well fitted for waiting, 

 independent of the interest connected with it, 

 from the sonnet dedicated to them, pointing 

 to the extreme feelings of the child and of 

 declining manhood. 



PISCATOK. And where 



" The struggling rill insensibly is grown 

 Into a brook of loud and stately march." 



Is it not fine, bursting out of that immense 

 chasm, as if the mountain had been cleft to give 

 the stream passage ; and, as if in the convulsive 

 act, all that ruin of rocks, all those disjointed 

 fragments lying in confusion on the steep de- 

 Q 3 



