So, Each Casting Some Blame
Upon The Other, We Withdrew Quickly To Safer Waters.
The Scene-shifter saw fit here to close the drama, of this day,
without regard to any unities which we mortals prize.
Whether it
might have proved tragedy, or comedy, or tragi-comedy, or
pastoral, we cannot tell. This Sunday ended by the going down of
the sun, leaving us still on the waves. But they who are on the
water enjoy a longer and brighter twilight than they who are on
the land, for here the water, as well as the atmosphere, absorbs
and reflects the light, and some of the day seems to have sunk
down into the waves. The light gradually forsook the deep water,
as well as the deeper air, and the gloaming came to the fishes as
well as to us, and more dim and gloomy to them, whose day is a
perpetual twilight, though sufficiently bright for their weak and
watery eyes. Vespers had already rung in many a dim and watery
chapel down below, where the shadows of the weeds were extended
in length over the sandy floor. The vespertinal pout had already
begun to flit on leathern fin, and the finny gossips withdrew
from the fluvial street to creeks and coves, and other private
haunts, excepting a few of stronger fin, which anchored in the
stream, stemming the tide even in their dreams. Meanwhile, like
a dark evening cloud, we were wafted over the cope of their sky,
deepening the shadows on their deluged fields.
Having reached a retired part of the river where it spread out to
sixty rods in width, we pitched our tent on the east side, in
Tyngsborough, just above some patches of the beach plum, which
was now nearly ripe, where the sloping bank was a sufficient
pillow, and with the bustle of sailors making the land, we
transferred such stores as were required from boat to tent, and
hung a lantern to the tent-pole, and so our house was ready.
With a buffalo spread on the grass, and a blanket for our
covering our bed was soon made. A fire crackled merrily before
the entrance, so near that we could tend it without stepping
abroad, and when we had supped, we put out the blaze, and closed
the door, and with the semblance of domestic comfort, sat up to
read the Gazetteer, to learn our latitude and longitude, and
write the journal of the voyage, or listened to the wind and the
rippling of the river till sleep overtook us. There we lay under
an oak on the bank of the stream, near to some farmer's
cornfield, getting sleep, and forgetting where we were; a great
blessing, that we are obliged to forget our enterprises every
twelve hours. Minks, muskrats, meadow-mice, woodchucks,
squirrels, skunks, rabbits, foxes, and weasels, all inhabit near,
but keep very close while you are there. The river sucking and
eddying away all night down toward the marts and the seaboard, a
great wash and freshet, and no small enterprise to reflect on.
Instead of the Scythian vastness of the Billerica night, and its
wild musical sounds, we were kept awake by the boisterous sport
of some Irish laborers on the railroad, wafted to us over the
water, still unwearied and unresting on this seventh day, who
would not have done with whirling up and down the track with ever
increasing velocity and still reviving shouts, till late in the
night.
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