Still Steering, Fine As It
Is, Is Not All You Require And Hanker After.
You want pace as well,
and pace, except when in the clutches of the current, I had not so
far attained.
Perchance, thought I, the pace region in a canoe may
be in its centre; so I got along on my knees into the centre to
experiment. Bitter failure; the canoe took to sidling down river
broadside on, like Mr. Winkle's horse. Shouts of laughter from the
bank. Both bow and stern education utterly inapplicable to centre;
and so, seeing I was utterly thrown away there, I crept into the
bows, and in a few more minutes I steered my canoe, perfectly, in
among its fellows by the bank and secured it there. Mme. Forget ran
down to meet me and assured me she had not laughed so much since she
had been in Africa, although she was frightened at the time lest I
should get capsized and drowned. I believe it, for she is a sweet
and gracious lady; and I quite see, as she demonstrated, that the
sight of me, teetotumming about, steering in an elaborate and showy
way all the time, was irresistibly comic. And she gave a most
amusing account of how, when she started looking for me to give me
tea, a charming habit of hers, she could not see me in among my
bottles, and so asked the little black boy where I was. "There,"
said he, pointing to the tree hanging against the rock out in the
river; and she, seeing me hitched with a canoe against the rock, and
knowing the danger and depth of the river, got alarmed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 185 of 705
Words from 51127 to 51407
of 194943
