abbed him quick.

Sometimes,--I don't know what made it,--there would be long lines of
light in different colors layin' on the water; long waveless furrows
of palest amethyst, lilock, pale rose-color, and pearl, soft green and
blue, way off and near to, wide and long and changin' all the time.
Why, some of the time it would seem as if the surface of the river wuz
a shinin' pavement made of them glowin' and lustrous colors, that you
might walk out on. And then agin, cold Reality would say to you that
if you tried it, you'd most probable git drownded.

Anon we went by a island with a house standin' on it, the hull thing
seemin'ly nothin' but house right in the strongest current of the
river, and on the end of the island wuz a wheel fixed that run all the
machinery of the house, lightin' it, and pumpin' water, and runnin'
the coffee mill and sewin' machine, and rockin' the cradle, for all I
know.

The river waitin' on 'em, and doin' it cheerful. A soarin' soul of
power and might, so strong that a wink from its old eye-lids could
swallow up a fleet of ships, and a flirt of its fingers overthrow a
army of strongest men and toss 'em about like leaves on an autumn
gale. To see such a powerful, noble body, that wuz used to doin' the
biggest kind of jobs, quietly bucklin' down pumpin' water to supply a
tea-kettle, and churn a little butter, mebby!

Why, thinks I, what a lesson to hired girls that is, they're always so
fraid of doin' a little more than it is their place to do. They're so
fraid of settin' back a chair, if it is their place to cook, and so
afraid of bilin' a egg if it is their place to slick up the house.
Why, it wuz a lesson in morals to see that big grand river crumplin'
down to do housework for a spell.

Frontenac Island used to be called Round Island, I guess because it
wuz kinder square in shape. It is a handsome place with a immense
hotel[A] settin' back most a quarter of a mild, and jined by a long
railed balcony with another, makin' room enough, it seemed to me, for
an army. The broad, handsome path leadin' up to it wuz bordered with
beautiful flowers and shrubs, lookin' lovely against the vivid green
of the lawn.

I liked the name Frontenac first rate, and Point Vivian, and the name
of the hotel on St. Lawrence Park, Lotus, seemed highly appropriate
for the idle hours of rest and pleasure in the balmy summer-time.

And that park, while it could pass itself off for an island, wuz
really the main la