A SUMMER VOYAGE 23 



her sleeve too. I stopped at a trout brook, which 

 came down out of the mountains on the right, and 

 took a few trout for my supper; but its current was 

 too roily from the shower for fly-fishing. Another 

 farmhouse attracted me, but there was no one at 

 home; so I picked a quart of strawberries in the 

 meadow in front, not minding the wet grass, and 

 about six o'clock, thinking another storm that had 

 been threatening on my right had miscarried, I 

 pushed off, and went floating down into the deep- 

 ening gloom of the river valley. The mountains, 

 densely wooded from base to summit, shut in the 

 view on every hand. They cut in from the right 

 and from the left, one ahead of the other, matching 

 like the teeth of an enormous trap ; the river was 

 caught and bent, but not long detained, by them. 

 Presently I saw the rain creeping slowly over them 

 in my rear, for the wind had changed; but I appre- 

 hended nothing but a moderate sundown drizzle, 

 such as we often get from the tail end of a shower, 

 and drew up in the eddy of a big rock under an 

 overhanging tree till it should have passed. But 

 it did not pass; it thickened and deepened, and 

 reached a steady pour by the time I had calculated 

 the sun would be gilding the mountain-tops. I 

 had wrapped my rubber coat about my blankets and 

 groceries, and bared my back to the storm. In 

 sullen silence I saw the night settling down and the 

 rain increasing; my roof -tree gave way, and every 

 leaf poured its accumulated drops upon me. There 

 were streams and splashes where before there had 



