However, though I risk being deemed heartless, I must admit that this feeling of regret passed from my breast as soon as the bend of the river shut the Ingas from our perspective, and in its place sprang a sentiment of gladness and joy that I could scarce contain; for there before me sat my Lady Biddy, radiant with health and beauty, her eyes yet glittering with tears, but a gentle smile playing about her sweet cheek as hope revived her heart, and I knew that for many weeks—ay, months—we must live close together; that for long, long days every word of her dear lips must be for my ear, every smile for me, and for me only. My mind was too enchanted with the prospect of such happiness to dwell on the blank, dreadful misery that must follow when our journey came to an end, and she was restored to her friends. "Why should I plague myself," says I to myself, "with the future when the present is so lovely? If one is to weep to-morrow, there is more reason in smiling today." Yet, nevertheless, a wicked hope did secretly lie at the bottom of my heart that ere we reached our journey's end some sudden accident might put an end to both our lives.
'Twas like some pleasant summer holiday jaunt, for the river was broad and smooth, and the current just swift enough to carry us merrily onward, with no more than a stroke of the paddle now and then to keep the canoe to her course. On either hand were trees weighed down with strings of rubies and opals and amethysts, for so those twining wreaths of flowers seemed. In the pools stood wondrous herons; some saffron and rosy pink, and other some crimson red; but of the birds that started from the reeds, and those that flew over our heads, there was no end to the gorgeous tints.
About midday we became conscious of a most delicate sweet scent, and at a sudden turn of the river my dear lady clapped her hands and cried out in delight. Turning about whither her eyes were resting, I spied a wide, deep inlet of the river, where there was but slight movement of the water, all covered over with green lily leaves, dotted with blooms of creamy-white and tender pink, from which that delicate perfume issued. But how shall I tell, and yet be believed for a truthful man, of the wondrous size of these lilies? There was not a bloom that measured less than a yard about; and as for the leaves, I have seen no round table so big, for some of them did measure a good fathom and a half from side to side.
For some time we looked in amaze at this wondrous field of beauty, and then perceiving a part of that inlet very agreeably shaded with drooping palmettoes, I thought it would be a vastly proper place to rest in and eat our noon-day meal; and Lady Biddy being also of this opinion, I shoved the canoe in the midst of these lilies, where she was like to stay as secure as if chained to an anchor, and there we ate and drank, refreshing ourselves at the same time with the delights of this lily paradise.
When we had feasted to our heart's content, I pushed to the shore, and having tied one of the nets betwixt two trees, I begged my lady to repose till the heat of the day was passed.
"'Tis but changing one dream for another, Benet," says she, lying down in her net. So she lay facing the water and looking at the great moths that fluttered over the still flowers, with sweet content in her face, till her lids dropped, and she slept.
As soon as I perceived this I got up, for to gratify her wish I had made a pretense of sleeping on the herb at a little distance; and observing that this grass was exceeding fine and soft, I got my sword and mowed enough to make two good trusses, and these I took down to the canoe and bestowed them in the hinder end. Then pushing out amongst the lilies, I cut me two great leaves of like circumference, which I carried to the shore, and there laying them on the ground back to back, I made shift, with a long thorn for a needle and some stout palmetto fibre for thread, to sew them tightly together, so that it stood on edge very well by reason of the edges being curled up all round half a foot high, and one leaf supporting the other. Then this I took down to the canoe, and setting it up crosswise betwixt the two trusses of grass, and further securing it by means of threads from its circumference to the hinder end of the canoe, it kept its place as well as I could wish. By the time I had finished this business my Lady Biddy awoke, and coming down to where I stood looking at my handiwork, she says, "Why, what is that for, Benet?"
"To keep the sun from your back as we go down the river," says I, "and the sun out of my eyes."
"And the soft grass is a cushion for me to sit on," says she; "sure, no one in the world is so ingenious and thoughtful as you."
But I had another purpose in view for this screen, as I put in practice that night when we could go no further, and I anchored our canoe in a little shallow. While Lady Biddy was ashore to get some fruit she had a mind to, I set this lily-leaf screen midway in the length of the canoe, which was some twenty feet long, or thereabouts, dividing it, as you may say, into two chambers, each ten feet long, and duly screened one from another; and this screen I secured with strings, so that it could fall neither one way nor t'other. In the hinder half, which was not encumbered with our goods, I strewed one of the trusses of grass, and from the other I drew out a good soft armful that I set against the screen for a pillow.