FREE FOR THE DA Y. 6/ 



while at Cape Cod and having all America behind 

 him. I took my cue from him, and, looking 

 only down stream and not far beyond, saw only 

 the rippling waters. Every ripple carried its 

 atom of the town dust from my eyes, and in an 

 hour I saw the world again with clear vision. 

 Something of the old self thrilled my veins, but 

 still I was loath to leave so sweet a spot. I had 

 no promise of better things, and, though early 

 February, the wild words of an ancient chroni- 

 cler came to mind. Wrote a mendacious Eng- 

 lishman in 1648, of this river the Delaware 

 that it was " scituate in the best and same 

 temper as Italy," and goes on to say, it " is freed 

 from the extreme cold and barrennesse of the one 

 [New England] and heat and aguish marshes of 

 the other [Virginia] " ; all of which is a (to put it 

 mildly) mistake. And then the romancer adds, 

 the Delaware Valley "is like Lombardy, . . . 

 and partaketh of the healthiest aire and most ex- 

 cellent commodities of Europe." Then follows 

 a bit of nonsense about the wild beasts and agri- 

 cultural capabilities. Why could not those old 

 travelers be truthful? There is not one but 

 deals in absurdities, and it would appear that they 

 rounded off every paragraph with a flight of the 

 imagination. If his account be true, reindeer 

 and moose, as well as elk and deer, tramped these 

 river shores but three centuries ago, and the 



