His whole nature became sensitive and receptive,
like that of a poet, an absorbent of the beauty and music of earth and
air.
The long bright hours of this particular day were spent in exploring
bayous and marshes, and in paddling among the ledges and around the
lovely islands of Lake Couchiching. The dazzling blue expanse--mirror
of a sky as blue--was broadly edged with reeds and rushes, flags and
water-lilies, and framed by the thickly wooded shore and the green
still cliffs that overhung the quiet waves. The air was laden with the
sweet faint odours of early summer, and a soft breeze was lightly
blowing under skies as soft. The youthful voyager went ashore, and for
a long time lay stretched on the sand with his gun watching for
wild-fowl.
The woods were brilliant with flowers, blue larkspur, scarlet lichens,
the white and yellow and purple cyprepedium, or lady's slipper, called
by the Indians 'moccasin flower,' the purple and scarlet iris, the
bright pink blossom of the columbine, and all the other wind-blown and
world-forgotten flowerets of the forest.
As the day grew warmer he betook himself for coolness to a quiet
leaf-screened nook, beneath a rudely sculptured cliff, mantled in
foliage.
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