They gloomed fearsomely. As they swelled higher in
the broad basin their wrath grew apace. They chafed against their prison
walls, they licked and lapped at the stolid bank. Higher and higher they
mounted, growing stronger with every leap. More and more bitterly they
fretted at their durance. Behind them other waters were pressing, just
as eager to escape as they. They lashed and writhed in savage spite. Not
much longer could these patient walls withstand their anger. Something
must happen.

The "something" was a man. He raised the floodgate, and there at last
was a way of escape. How joyously the eager waters rushed at it! They
tumbled and tossed in their mad hurry to get out. They surged and swept
and roared about the narrow opening.

But what was this? They had come on a wooden box that streaked down the
slope as straight as an arrow from the bow. It was some other scheme of
the tyrant Man. Nevertheless, they jostled and jammed to get into it. On
its brink they poised a moment, then down, down they dashed.

Like a cataract they rushed, ever and ever growing faster. Ho! this was
motion now, this was action, strength, power. As they shot down that
steep hill they shrieked for very joy. Freedom, freedom at last! No more
trickling feebly from snowbanks; no more boring devious channels in oozy
clay, no more stagnating in sullen dams. They were alive, alive, swift,
intense, terrific. They gloried in their might. They roared the raucous
song of freedom, and faster and faster they charged. Like a stampede of
maddened horses they thundered on. What power on earth could stop them?
"We must be free! We must be free!" they cried.

Suddenly they saw ahead the black hole of a great pipe, a hollow shard
of steel. Prison-like it looked, again some contrivance of the tyrant
Man. They would fain have overleapt it, but it was too late. Countless
other waters were behind them, forcing them forward with irresistible
power. And, faster and faster still, they crashed into the shard of
steel.

They were trapped, atrociously trapped, cabined, confined, rammed
forward by a vast and remorseless pressure. Yet there was escape just
ahead. It was a tiny point of light, an outlet. They must squeeze
through it. They were crushed and pinioned in that prison of steel, and
mightily they tried to burst it. No! there was only that orifice; they
must pass through it. Then with that great force behind them, tortured,
maddened, desperate, the waters