FAR AND NEAR 



where the level surface of the water begins. As oii« 

 glides along in his boat, he sees various rank acjua- 

 tic growths slowly waving in the shadowy depths 

 beneath him. The larger trees on each side unite 

 their branches above his head, so that at times he 

 seems to be entering an arboreal cave out of which 

 glides the stream. In the more open places the 

 woods mirror themselves in the glassy surface till 

 one seems floating between two worlds, clouds and 

 sky and trees below him matching those around and 

 above him. A bird flits from shore to shore, and one 

 sees it duplicated against the sky in the under-world. 

 What vistas open ! What banks of drooping foliage, 

 what grain and arch of gnarled branches, lure the 

 eve as one drifts or silently paddles along! The 

 stream has absorbed the shadows so long that it is 

 itself like a liquid shadow. Its bed is lined with vari- 

 ous dark vegetable growths, as with the skin of 

 some huge, shaggy animal, the fur of which slowly 

 stirs in the languid current. I go here in early spring, 

 after the ice has broken up, to get a glimpse of the 

 first wild ducks and to play the sportsman without a 

 gun. I am sure I would not exchange the quiet sur- 

 prise and pleasure I feel, as, on rounding some point 

 or curve in the stream, two or more ducks spring 

 suddenly out from some little cove or indentation in 

 the shore, and with an alarum quack, quack,, launch 

 into the air and quickly gain the free spaces above 

 the treetops, for the satisfaction of the gunner who 



148 



