Now when I had mastered the language of this water, and had come to know every trifling fe

atures that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something too. I had lost something which could never be 1 to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in 2 a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam-boating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, 3 which a solitary log came floating black and conspicuous, in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparking upon the water; in 4 the surface was broken by boiling,tumbling rings,that were as many-tinted as an opal; 5 the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore 6 our left was densely wooded and the somber shadow that 7 from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high 8 the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved 'a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was' flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, soft distances; and over the whole scene, 9 and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily enrich-ing 10 every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.

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