4ft UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



indeed, it bore great trees against them, and held theui 

 open for a while. Then its courage rose. The river 

 rushed in and made a raid upon its former territory ; 

 but this was but for a few days at most. The greedy 

 landlord reset the gates, and the baffled river could only 

 fret and submit. But a worse fate was in store for Po- 

 aetquissings. Little creeks, it seems, like poor men, 

 have few rights that rich men are bound to respect. It 

 so happened that the canal must replace the river as a 

 highway. Nature blundered, as usual, and made the 

 river too broad and shallow. Man, therefore, must 

 needs make a canal, deep and narrow; and this passes 

 directly over the outlet of Poaetquissings. Then and 

 Now — think of it ! Then, meandering leisurely through 

 a forest of hickories, maples, and elms, and joining the 

 river with unruffled flow — now, forced to crawl through 

 a wooden trough, with a battered barndoor at one end, 

 and under the canal at that ! The tide is still shut out, 

 it is true; but in all these changes the creek has had 

 some little satisfaction for past indignities, for the old 

 floodgates are in ruins. 



Although not a natural feature of the stream, these 

 ruined floodgates are not unsightly. Where they are 

 the creek is very wide, pondlike, and even boasts of a 

 little island. Here, in midwinter, there is a beautiful 

 skating- ground, but one that cannot be coursed over 

 carelessly. Devote one eye, at least, to air-holes, or 

 come to grief. When the thermometer suggests that 

 the arctic circle is out of place, that it ])a8 slipped south- 

 ward a thousand miles, look upon yourself as an Esqui- 

 mau, and visit Poaetquissings by moonlight. "It will 



