12 A SUMMER BOATING TRIP 



and lonc^ up into the whispering branches overhead, 

 he has left what he cannot bring away with him, — 

 the flame and the ashes of himself. 



Of certain game-birds it is thought that at times 

 they have the power of withholding their scent; no 

 hint or particle of themselves goes out upon the air. 

 I think there are persons whose spiritual pores are al- 

 ways sealed up, and I presume they have the best time 

 of it. Their hearts never radiate into the void ; they 

 do not yearn and sympathize without return; they 

 do not leave themselves by the wayside as the sheep 

 leaves her wool upon the brambles and thorns. 



This branch of the Delaware, so far as I could learn, 

 had never before been descended by a white man in 

 a boat. Rafts of pine and hemlock timber are run 

 down on the spring and fall freshets, but of pleasure- 

 seekers in boats I appeared to be the first. Hence my 

 advent was a surprise to most creatures in the water 

 and out. I surprised the cattle in the field, and those 

 ruminating leg-deep in the water turned their heads 

 at my approach, swallowed their unfinished cuds, and 

 scampered off as if they had seen a spectre. I sur- 

 prised the fish on their spawning beds and feeding 

 grounds; they scattered, as my shadow glided down 

 upon them, like chickens when a hawk appears. I 

 surprised an ancient fisherman seated on a spit of 

 gravelly beach, with his back up stream, and leisurely 

 angling in a deep, still eddy, and mumbling to him- 

 self. As I shd into the circle of his vision his grip on 

 his pole relaxed, his jaw dropped, and he was too be- 

 wildered to reply to my salutation for some moments. 

 As I turned a bend in the river I looked back, and saw 

 him hastening away with great precipitation. I pre- 



