home, an so my vacant buzzom craves to be filled. I've got a
dreadful talent for doin the pariential, an what's more, not only
for doin the pariential, but for feelin of it. So you boys, ef
ever you see me a doin of the pariential towards youns, please
remember that when I act like an anxious an too indulgent parient
towards youns, it's because I feel like one."

For some hours they traversed the waters, carried swiftly on by the
united forces of the wind and tide. At last they found themselves
close by Blomidon, and under his mighty shadow they sailed for some
time. Then they doubled the cape, and there, before them, lay a
long channel--the Straits of Minas, through which the waters pour
at every ebb and flood. Their course now lay through this to the
Bay of Fundy outside; and as it was within two hours of the low
tide, the current ran swiftly, hurrying them rapidly past the land.
Here the scene was grand and impressive in the extreme. On one
side arose a lofty, precipitous cliff, which extended for miles,
its sides scarred and tempest-torn, its crest fringed with trees,
towering overhead many hundreds of feet, black, and menacing, and
formidable. At its base was a steep beach, disclosed by the
retreating tide, which had been formed by the accumulated masses of
rock that had fallen in past ages from the cliffs above. These
now, from the margin of the water up to high-water mark, were
covered with a vast growth of sea-weed, which luxuriated here, and
ran parallel to the line of vegetation on the summit of the cliff.
On the other side of the strait the scene was different. Here the
shores were more varied; in one place, rising high on steep
precipices, in others, thrusting forth black, rocky promontories
into the deep channel; in others again, retreating far back, and
forming bays, round whose sloping shores appeared places fit for