“How pretty it looks,” said his mother, “with those pendant white blossoms; I shall always associate this flowery canoe and its graceful legend with this turn in the path on Goat Island.”
“Are we not having a delightful afternoon, mother? the air is so pleasant, and there are patches of blue sky, and it is nice not to carry an umbrella,” said Norman.
“We should not have thought of that element of satisfaction, but for the experience of these two days; as it is, we are prepared fully to appreciate it.”
They very much enjoyed their walk up to the “Three Sisters;” the rapids were of the most beautiful green, flecked with white foam, and in the absence of sunlight they could look, without being dazzled, upon the graceful majestic flow of waters. How many longing, lingering looks were given from each spot as, at the approach of evening, they reluctantly retraced their steps.
Norman had amused himself during the day in looking over Indian curiosities, and in addition to a birch-bark canoe worked in porcupine quills, pincushions, and mats worked in beads, had purchased a Derbyshire-spar cup and whistle at the store near the bridge to Goat Island, with the assurance that they were turned at Niagara, out of Table Rock!
A parting glance from Point View the next morning before breakfast, after which they took the cars for Buffalo, where they found Professor L. awaiting them. A long ride on the railroad, near the shore of Lake Erie, (which was not however often visible,) carried them through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, and then through Indiana and Illinois. All these states looked very much alike to Norman as he hurried past groves, ravines, towns, and prairies, and after a day and night’s travel arrived at E., a village near Chicago, without any very definite impressions of the shifting scenery that had passed before his vision.
CHAPTER III.
CHILDREN MADE HAPPY.
“We are willing, we are ready;
We would learn, if you would teach,
We have hearts that yearn to duty;