"Fold our tents like the Arabs,
and as silently steal away;"
but we took down the long rods, put away the heavy reels, made the
canoes fast to the side of the house, embarked the three horses on
the front deck, and then dropped down with the current, swinging along
through the rapids, and drifting slowly through the still places, now
grounding on a hidden rock, and now sweeping around a sharp curve,
until at length we saw the roofs of Metapedia and the ugly bridge of the
railway spanning the river. There we left our floating house, awkward
and helpless, like some strange relic of the flood, stranded on the
shore. And as we climbed the bank we looked back and wondered whether
Noah was sorry when he said good-bye to his ark.
1888.