THE LELIA. 
15 
justified, alas! But with sundry subsequent 
scrubbings with kerosene and boiling water, 
and a wholesale ripping away of the leather 
seats, the boat became trim and clean. 
We spent three most happy weeks on the 
Lelia. A curtain, hung at night across the 
saloon, made two bedrooms of it, and our 
mattresses were laid upon the floor. That first 
night we did not sleep well. The captain had 
brought us to in the shelter of a large island, and 
there we anchored. But the rush of the flood- 
water past us, the rattling of the chain, and the 
unfamiliar surroundings and sounds, meant a 
wakeful night. 
We woke in the first flush of dawn, to a gleam 
of sunshine and a clearing sky. Little by little 
the grey skirts of the rain trailed slowly away; 
and as the day brightened we found ourselves in 
the middle of an immense river from which the 
mists were rising, with low wooded banks on 
either side. Already we had left the town far 
behind and our way now stretched before us, 
up this expanse of tawny flooded water, flecked 
with foam, and darkening almost to black below 
the trees which overhung its distant banks. 
At noon we tied up again. The sun had come 
out, and the sodden earth steamed in its 
warmth. A mud hut or two stood on the bank, 
in a little clearing, and a thousand scents rose 
from the dense undergrowth. Butterflies 
quivered on broad-leafed plants, drinking in 
