THE SUSQUEHANNA
Here for a while a shadow seemed to fall over our trip. No doubt it was
the shadow of the great town we were approaching. Not that we have
anything against Elmira, though possibly its embattled reformatory,
frowning from the hillside, contributed its gloomy associations to our
spirits. It was against towns in general that our gorge rose. Did our
vagabond ethics necessitate our conscientiously tramping every foot of
these "gritty paving-stones," we asked each other, as we entered upon a
region of depressing suburbs, and we called a halt on the spot to discuss
the point. The discussion was not long, and it was brought to a
cheerful, demoralized end by the approach of the trolley, into which,
regardless of right or wrong, we climbed with alacrity, not to alight
till not only Elmira was left behind, but more weary suburbs, too, on the
other side. That night, as old travellers phrase it, we lay at Waverly,
on the frontier of Pennsylvania, a sad, dirty little town, grotesquely
belying its romantic name, and only surpassed in squalor by the
classically named Athens--beware, reader, of American towns named out of
classical dictionaries! Here, however, our wanderings in the
brick-and-mortar wilderness were to end, for by a long, romantic, old,
covered bridge we crossed the Chemung River, and there once more, on the
other side, was Nature, lovelier than ever, awaiting us. Not Dante, when
he emerged from Hades and again beheld the stars, drew deeper breaths of
escape than we, thus escaping from--Athens!
And soon we were to meet the Susquehanna--beautiful, broad-bosomed name,
that has always haunted my imagination like the name of some beautiful
savage princess--_La belle sauvage_. Susquehanna! What a southern
opulence in the soft, seductive syllables! Yes, soon we were to meet the
Susquehanna. Nor had we long to wait, and little did we suspect what our
meeting with that beautiful river was to mean.
The Chemung, on whose east bank we were now walking, seemed a noble
enough river, very broad and all the more picturesque for being
shallow with the Summer drought; and its shining reaches and wooded
banks lifted up our hearts. She, like ourselves, was on her way to
join the Susquehanna, a mile or two below, and we said to ourselves,
that, beautiful as the land had been through which we had already
passed, we were now entering on a Nature of more heroic mould,
mightier contours, and larger aspects. We were henceforth to walk in
the company of great rivers: the Susquehanna, like some epic goddess,
was to lead us to the Lehigh; the Blue Mountains were to bring us to
the Delaware; and the uplands of Sullivan County were to bring us
to--the lordly gates of the Hudson.
Our chests expanded as imagination luxuriated in the pictures it made.
Our walk was only just beginning.