"In about a half hour arter Rufus raced off to the Falls,
back he comes as hard as he could tear, a-puffing and a
blowin' like a sizeable grampus. You never seed such a
figure as he was, he was wet through and through, and
the dry dust stickin' to his clothes, made him look like
a dog, that had jumped into the water, and then took a
roll in the road to dry hisself; he was a caution to look
at, that's a fact.

"'Well,' sais I, 'Stranger, did you see the Falls?'

"'Yes,' sais he, 'I have see'd 'em and felt 'em too;
them's very wet Falls, that's a fact. I hante a dry rag
on me; if it hadn't a been for that ere Britisher, I
wouldn't have see'd 'em at all, and yet a thought I had
been there all the time. It's a pity too, that that winder
don't bear on it, for then you could see it without the
trouble of goin' there, or gettin' ducked, or gettin'
skeered so. I got an awful fright there--I shall never
forget it, if I live as long as Merusalem. You know I
hadn't much time left, when. I found out I hadn't been
there arter all, so I ran all the way, right down as hard
as I could clip; and, seein' some folks comin' out from
onder the Fall, I pushed strait in, but the noise actilly
stunned me, and the spray wet me through and through like
a piece of sponged cloth; and the great pourin', bilin'
flood, blinded me so I couldn't see a bit; and I hadn't
gone far in, afore a cold, wet, clammy, dead hand, felt
my face all over. I believe in my soul, it was the Indian
squaw that went over the Falls in the canoe, or the crazy