\-r - r ,- : 
A Day’s Outing 
By MEADE C. DOBSON 
I T was very agreeable upon the river that 
morning. The sun shone brightly from a 
blue sky. The air was of enchanting purity. 
A good breeze rustled and shivered among the 
Aweary from months of labor in the city, 
we sought rest and renewal of hope and energy 
in nature’s infectious spirit. We wanted to 
again steep ourselves in sun and shade until 
The course kept turning and turning. Now 
the river would glide along the smooth base of 
a bluff, now it would skirt an open meadow or 
a cornfield. Sometimes the trees closed thickly 
overhead and presented in front of us a green 
wall that seemed to have no passage. But the 
river never stopped running, slipping flush and 
fleet through thickets of willows overtopped by 
elm and maple, oak and leaning sycamore, and 
ONE OF THE COTTONSTONE BLUFFS AND THE LITTLE RIVER. 
trees, the leaves flickering in and out of the 
soft early light in tumultuous masses. A few 
streamers of mist lingered above the water in 
the cool shade of the overhanging forest. The 
river was low and of limpid clearness, its cur¬ 
rent was swift, and with rapids free from ob¬ 
structions, canoeing was easy work. 
The exhilaration of setting forth upon the 
water and the familiar easy motion of the canoe 
under each stroke of the paddles carried us 
along down stream at a rapid pace, but soon the 
contact of balmy air and warming sun began 
to stupefy us and the paddles ceased to bend 
under strokes that became slower and slower. 
And this was the sensation we two had come to 
seek. 
the brain goes to sleep in an ecstatic stupor and 
leaves one in a very calm and golden state, with 
senses attuned only to the fairness and harmony 
of our little world. And as the sun and air, the 
singing river and the little valley with its en¬ 
folding hills spread their benign and comfort¬ 
ing enchantment over us, we dipped our pad¬ 
dles in the water without effort and loafed, 
body and mind. 
The current streamed steadily on. The river 
wound among low hills, so that sometimes the 
sun was at our backs and sometimes it stood 
straight ahead. And doubling thus adown the 
narrow and well-wooded valley, the river was 
a shining strip of mirror glass that was set 
ashiver by the ripples from our paddles. 
past banks of yellow clay or jutting rock. 
In those upper reaches the river was ours. 
Besides cattle we saw no living things except 
the birds. Being thus alone with green trees 
and running water, it felt solemn along the 
riverside with the trees drooping their boughs 
into the glistening current. And the bordering 
woodland was so vast and so quiet that a couple 
of worldly fellows swinging along in a canoe 
seemed very small in comparison. Trees are 
very dignified and civil companions for the city 
man. 
Now and then the brooding silence was 
broken by the liquid notes of a thrush, and the 
melodious chime of the little brown fellow 
seemed to fall from the treetops with a joyous 
