Man and Dog Deliberate. 9 1 



above the hidden irregularity of the bottom. If you 

 sit by the dam higher up the brook, and watch the 

 arch of the cataract rolling over, it is perhaps more 

 visible. Every now and then a check seems to stay 

 the current momentarily : and at night, when it is 

 perfectly still, listening to the murmur of the falling 

 water from a distance, under the apple-trees in the 

 garden it runs a scale — now up, then down ; each 

 variation of volume changing the musical note. 

 This faint undulation is more visible in some brooks 

 than others. 



A third mark is where a branch, as it was carried 

 along, grounded on a shallow spot ; and one mast, as 

 it were, of the wreck protruding upwards, catches the 

 stray weeds as they swim down and holds them. 

 Thus, step by step, the mind of the man measures the 

 distance, and assures him that it is a little beyond 

 what he has hitherto attempted ; yet will not extra 

 exertion clear it ? — for having once approached the 

 brink, shame and the dislike of giving up pull him 

 forward. He walks hastily twenty yards up the 

 brook, then as many the other way, but discovers no 

 more favourable spot ; hesitates again ; next carefully 

 examines the tripping place, lest the turf, under- 

 mined, yield to the sudden pressure, as also the 

 landing, for fear of falling back. Finally he retires a 



