a barbarous norther had purged the air of every
stain and the human soul of every virtue, I saw San Pablo Bay margined
with cliffs whose altitude must have exceeded considerably that from whose
dizzy verge old eyeless Gloster, falling in a heap at his own feet,
supposed himself to have sailed like a stone.

One more instance and "I've done, i' faith." Gliding along down the Hudson
River one hot summer afternoon in a steamboat, I went out on the
afterguard for a breath of fresh air, but there was none to be had. The
surface of the river was like oil and the steamer's hull slipped through
it with surprisingly little disturbance. Her tremor was for once hardly
perceptible; the beating of her paddles was subdued to an almost inaudible
rhythm. The air seemed what we call "hollow" and had apparently hardly
enough tenuity to convey sounds. Everywhere on the surface of the glassy
stream were visible undulations of heat, and the light steam of
evaporation lay along the sluggish water and hung like a veil between the
eye and the bank. Seated in an armchair and overcome by the heat and the
droning of some prosy passengers near by, I fell asleep. When I awoke the
guards were crowded with passengers in a high state of excitement,
pointing and craning shoreward. Looking in the same direction I saw,
through the haze, the sharp outlines of a city in gray silhouette. Roofs,
spires, pinnacles, chimneys, angles of wall--all were there, cleanly cut
out against the air.

"What is it?" I cried, springing to my feet.

"That, sir," replied a passenger stolidly, "is Poughkeepsie."

It was.

A SOLE SURVIVOR

Among the arts and sciences, the art of Sole Surviving is one of the most
interesting, as (to the artist) it is by far the most important. It is not
altogether an art, perhaps, for success in it is largely due to accident.
One may study how solely to survive, yet, having an imperfect natural
aptitude, may fail of proficiency and be early cut off. To the contrary,
one little skilled in its methods, and not even well grounded in its
fundamental principles, may, by taking the trouble to have been born with
a suitable constitution, attain to a considerable eminence in the art.
Without undue immodesty, I think I may fairly claim some distinction in it
myself, although I have not regularly acquired it as one acquires
knowledge and skill in writing, painting and playing the flute. O yes, I
am a notable Sole Survivor, and some of my work in