This Was Not Calculated To Improve One's Nerve;
I Knew By Now I Had Got To Go By The Bridge, For I Saw I Was Not
Strong Enough In My Tired State To Fight The Water.
If only the
wretched thing had had its bark on it would have been better, but it
was bare, bald, and round, and a slip meant death on the rocks
below.
I rushed it, and reached the other side in safety, whereby
poor Pagan got chaffed about his failure by the others, who said
they had gone through the water just to wash their feet.
The other side, when we got there, did not seem much worth reaching,
being a swampy fringe at the bottom of a steep hillside, and after a
few yards the path turned into a stream or backwater of the river.
It was hedged with thickly pleached bushes, and covered with liquid
water on the top of semi-liquid mud. Now and again for a change you
had a foot of water on top of fearfully slippery harder mud, and
then we light-heartedly took headers into the bush, sideways, or sat
down; and when it was not proceeding on the evil tenor of its way,
like this, it had holes in it; in fact, I fancy the bottom of the
holes was the true level, for it came near being as full of holes as
a fishing-net, and it was very quaint to see the man in front, who
had been paddling along knee-deep before, now plop down with the
water round his shoulders; and getting out of these slippery
pockets, which were sometimes a tight fit, was difficult.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 286 of 705
Words from 79266 to 79547
of 194943
