ted and flung their
arms about them, and the wild grape-vines took wild
possession; and in the day of their glory they challenged the
bystander to admire anything without them. But the day of
their glory was not now; it came when Autumn called them to
shew themselves; and Autumn's messenger was far off. The
cedars had it, and the roses, and the eglantine, under
Summer's rule.

It was in the prime of summer when the two fishers went down
to their boat. The valley level was but a few feet above the
river; on that side, with a more scattering growth of cedars,
the rocks and the greensward gently let themselves down to the
edge of the water. The little dory was moored between two
uprising heads of granite just off the shore. Stepping from
rock to rock the brothers reached her. Rufus placed himself in
the stern with the fishing tackle, and Winthrop pushed off.

There was not a stir in the air; there was not a ripple on the
water, except those which the oars made, and the long widening
mark of disturbance the little boat left behind it. Still --
still, -- surely it was Summer's siesta; the very birds were
still; but it was not the oppressive rest before a
thunderstorm, only the pleasant hush of a summer's day. The
very air seemed blue -- blue against the mountains, and kept
back the sun's fierceness with its light shield; and even the
eye was bid to rest, the distant landscape was so hidden under
the same blue.

No distant landscape was to be seen, until they had rowed for
several minutes. Winthrop had turned to the north and was
coasting the promontory edge, which in that direction
stretched along for more than a quarter of a mile. It
stretched west as well as north, and the river's course beyond
it was in a north-easterly line; so that keeping close under
the shore as they were, the up view could not be had till the
point was turned. First they passed the rock-bound shore which
fenced in the home valley; then for a space the rocks and the
heights fell back and several acres of arable ground edged the
river, cut in two by a small belt of woods. These acres were
not used except for grazing cattle; the first field was
occupied with a grove of cylindrical cedars; in the second a
soft growth of young pines sloped up towards the height; the
ground there rising fast to a very bluff and precipitous range
which ended the promontory, and pushed the river boldly into a
curve, as abrupt almost as the one it took in an opposite