The boys escorted me about the town, then back to the river, and
got in their boat and came down to the bend, where they could see
me go through the whirlpool and pass the binocle (I am not sure
about the orthography of the word, but I suppose it means a double,
or a sort of mock eddy). I looked back as I shot over the rough
current beside a gentle vortex, and saw them watching me with great
interest. Rock eddy, also, was quite harmless, and I passed it
without any preliminary survey.

I nooned at Sodom, and found good milk in a humble cottage. In the
afternoon I was amused by a great blue heron that kept flying up in
advance of me. Every mile or so, as I rounded some point, I would
come unexpectedly upon him, till finally he grew disgusted with my
silent pursuit, and took a long turn to the left up along the side
of the mountain, and passed back up the river, uttering a hoarse,
low note.

The wind still boded rain, and about four o'clock, announced by
deep-toned thunder and portentous clouds, it began to charge down
the mountain-side in front of me. I ran ashore, covered my traps,
and took my way up through an orchard to a quaint little farmhouse.
But there was not a soul about, outside or in, that I could find,
though the door was unfastened; so I went into an open shed with
the hens, and lounged upon some straw, while the unloosed floods
came down. It was better than boating or fishing. Indeed, there
are few summer pleasures to be placed before that of reclining at
ease directly under a sloping roof, after toil or travel in the
hot sun, and looking out into the rain-drenched air and fields.
It is such a vital yet soothing spectacle. We sympathize with the
earth. We know how good a bath is, and the unspeakable