“How slowly and solemnly they drop into the abysm!”
It was not an original remark of Mr. Smith's. Nothing is so surprising to the observer as the extraordinary deliberateness with which the waters of Niagara take their tremendous plunge. All hurry and foam and fret, till they reach the smooth limit of the curve,—and then the laws of gravitation seem suspended, and, like Cæsar, they pause and determine, since it is inevitable, to take the death leap with becoming dignity.
“Shall we go to breakfast, Job?” I was obliged to raise my voice to be heard, to a pitch rather exhausting for a empty stomach.
His eyes remained fixed upon the shifting rainbows bending and vanishing in the spray. There was no moving him, and I gave in for another five minutes.
“Do you think it probable, Job, that the waters of Niagara strike on the axis of the world?”
No answer.
“Job!”
“What?”
“Do you think his Majesty's half of the cataract is finer than ours?”
“Much.”