. The long ago. n anywhere else inall the world—for it was a gentle river, a kindlyplayfellow, an understanding friend; and it seemedto fairly thrill in responsive glee when I plunged,naked and untamed, beneath the eddying waters ofthe swimming-hole under the overhanging wild-plumtree. Its banks, curving in a semi-circle around the vil-lage, marked the borders of the whole wide were other rivers, other villages, other landssomewhere—all with strange, queer names—existingonly in the geographies to worry little children. Thereal world, and all the really, truly folks and things,were
. The long ago. n anywhere else inall the world—for it was a gentle river, a kindlyplayfellow, an understanding friend; and it seemedto fairly thrill in responsive glee when I plunged,naked and untamed, beneath the eddying waters ofthe swimming-hole under the overhanging wild-plumtree. Its banks, curving in a semi-circle around the vil-lage, marked the borders of the whole wide were other rivers, other villages, other landssomewhere—all with strange, queer names—existingonly in the geographies to worry little children. Thereal world, and all the really, truly folks and things,were along the far-stretching banks of this our by the flats, where the tiny creek widened toa minature swamp and emptied its placid waters intothe main stream, the red-wing blackbirds soundedtheir strange cry among the cat-tails and the bull-rushes ; the frogs croaked in ceaseless and reverberantchorus; the catfish were ever hungry after dark, andthe night was broken by the glare of torches along /;. the little bridge or in a group of boats where fisher-lads kept close watch upon their corks. Far belowThe Dam, where the changeful current had left awide sand-bar and a great tree-trunk stretched itsfallen length across from the shore to the watersedge, the mud-turtles basked in the sunshine, and, atthe approach of Boyhood, glided or splashed to thesafety of the water. The banks of the river were a deep and silentjungle wherein all manner of wild beasts and birdswere hunted; its bosom was the vasty deep out uponwhich our cherished argosies were sent. And howoften their prows were unexpectedly turned by somenew current into mid-stream; sometimes saved by anassortment of missies breathlessly thrown to the farside, to bring them, wave-washed, back to us; some-times, alas, swept mercilessly out to depths whereonly the eye and childish grief could follow themover the big dam to certain wreckage in the whirl-pools below, but even then not abandoned until theshore had been p
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidlongago01wri, bookyear1916
