way. Peering this way and
that through the darkness, carried along without labor, spying countless
dangers where none existed, passing safely by them all, coming into a
strange region of the river, she began to feel the exhilaration of
venturous voyagers close upon unknown shores; the rush of the river and
the rustle of the forest were all the sounds she heard; she was speeding
alone through the darks of space to find another world. But, with time,
a more material sensation called her back,--her feet were wet. What if
the scow should founder! She flew to the old sun-dried gourd, and bailed
away again till her arms were tired. When she dared leave the gourd, she
was more calmly floating along and piercing an avenue of mighty gloom;
the river-banks had reared themselves two walls of stone, and over them
a hanging forest showed the heavens only like a scarf of stars caught
upon its tree-tops and shaking in the wind. The deep loneliness made
Flor tremble; the water that upbuoyed her was blackness itself; the way
before her was impenetrable; far up above her opened that rent of
sky,--so far, that she, a little dark waif among such tremendous
shadows, was all unguessed by any guardian eye.

But not for heaven itself bodily before her would she have turned about,
she who was all but free. The thought of that rose in her heart like
strong wings beating onward;--feverishly she followed.

Flor perceived now that the old scow was being borne along with a
strong, steady-motion, unlike its first fitful drift; it brought her
heart to her throat,--for just so, it seemed to her, would a torrent set
that was hastening to plunge over the side of the earth. She remembered,
with a start of cold horror, Zoe's dim tradition of a fall far off in
the river. She had never seen one, but Zoe had stamped its terrors
deeply. Still down in the gloom itself she could see nothing but the
slowly lightening sky overhead, the drowning stars, the rosy flush upon
the dark old tips feathering against a dewy grayness that was like
powdered light. But gradually she heard what conquered all necessity of
seeing,--heard a continuous murmurous sound that filled all the air and
grew to be a sullen roar. It seemed like the dread murmur from the world
beyond the grave, the roar in earthly ears of that awful silence. Flor's
quick senses were not long at fault. She seized her poles, and with all
her might endeavored to push in towards the side and out of the main
cha