A SUMMER VOYAGE 19 



ing only in being village boys. With what curios- 

 ity they looked me over ! Where had I come from ; 

 where was I going; how long had I been on the 

 way; who built my boat; was I a carpenter, to 

 build such a neat craft, etc. 1 They never had seen 

 such a traveler before. Had I had no mishaps'! 

 And then they bethought them of the dangerous 

 passes that awaited me, and in good faith began to 

 warn and advise me. They had heard the tales of 

 raftsmen, and had conceived a vivid idea of the 

 perils of the river below, gauging their notions of 

 it from the spring and fall freshets tossing about 

 the heavy and cumbrous rafts. There was a whirl- 

 pool, a rock eddy, and a binocle within a mile. I 

 might be caught in the binocle, or engulfed in the 

 whirlpool, or smashed up in the eddy. But I felt 

 much reassured when they told me I had already 

 passed several whirlpools and rock eddies; but that 

 terrible binocle, — what was that ? I had never 

 heard of such a monster. Oh, it was a still, miry 

 place at the head of a big eddy. The current might 

 carry me up there, but I could easily get out again; 

 the rafts did. But there was another place I must 

 beware of, where two eddies faced each other ; rafts- 

 men were sometimes swept off there by the oars 

 and drowned. And when I came to rock eddy, 

 which I would know, because the river divided 

 there (a part of the water being afraid to risk the 

 eddy, I suppose), I must go ashore and survey the 

 pass; but in any case it would be prudent to keep 

 to the left. I might stick on the rift, but that was 



