Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

48 An Inland Voyage.
to the same tune next morning when we came
to start ; but then, when the canoes were lying
empty, there was no word of any such petition.
Delicacy ? or perhaps a bit of fear for the water
in so crank a vessel ? I hate cynicism a great
deal worse than I do the devil ; unless perhaps
the two were the same thing ? And yet 'tis a
good tonic ; the cold tub and bath-tcwel of the
sentiments ; and positively necessary to life in
cases of advanced sensibility.
From the boats they turned to my costume.
They could not make enough of my red sash ;
and my knife filled them with awe.
" They make them like that in Englajid^'
said the boy with one arm. I was glad he did
not know how badly we make them in England
now-a-days. " They are for people who go away
to sea," he added, " and to defend one's life
against great fish."
I felt I was becoming a more and more