Sailing a Boat.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 27 January 1891, Page 3

Sailing a Boat.

————— + -I. . .... This evening, however, they had evidently made a mistake, and had put the wind at our back instead of in our face. We kept very quiet about it, and got the sail up quickly before they found it out, and then we spread ourselves about the boat in thoughtful attitudes, and the sail bellied out, and strained, and grumbled at the mast, and the boat flew. I steered. There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet — except in dreams. The wings of the rushing wind seem to bear you onward, you know not where. You are no longer the slow, plodding, puny thing of clay, creeping tortuously upon the ground ; you are a part of Nature I Your heart is throbbing against hers! Her glorious arms are round you, raising you up. against her heart ! Your spirit is as one with hers; your limbs grow light ! The voices of the ajr are singing to you; " The earth seems far away and little ; and the clouds, so close above your head, .. are brothers, and you stretch your arms to them. Wp had the river to ourselves, exoept that, far in the distance, we could see a fishing punt, moored in mid-stream, on which three fisher, men sat ; and we skimmed over the water, and passed the wooded banks, . and no one.spoke. : I was steering. . s As we drew nearer, we could see ' that the three men fishing seemed old and solemn-looking men. They sat on three chairs in the punt, and watched intently their lines. And the red sunset threw a mystic light upon the waters, and tinged with fire the towering woods and made a f golden glory of the piled-up clouds. It was an hour of deep enchantment :of eostastic hope and longing. The little sail stood out against the purple sky, the gloaming lay around us, wrapping the world in rainbow shadows ; and behind us, crept the

night. We seemed like the knights of some old legend, sailing across some mystic lake into the unknown realm of twilight, unto the great land of the sunset. We did not go into the realm of twilight; we went slap into that punt, where those three old men were fishing. We did not know what had happened at first, because the sail shut out the view, but from the nature of the language that rose upon the evening air, we gathered that we had come into the neighbourhood of human beings, and that they were vexed and discontented. Harris let the sail down, and then we saw what had happened. We had knocked those three old gentlemen oil' their chairs into a general heap at the bottom of the boat, and they were now slowly and painfully sorting themselves out from each other, and picking fish off themselves; and as they worked, they cursed vs — not*^ssith a common cursory curse, but with long, carefully - thought - out, comprehensive curses, that embraced the whole of our career, and went away into the distant future, and included all our relations, and covered everything connected with vs — good, substantial curses. Harris told them they ought to be grateful for a little excitement, sitting there fishing all day, and he also said that he was shocked and grieved to hear men their age give way to temper so. But it did not do any good. Three Men in a Boat.