Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/50

Rh thought it was God's white throne or foot stool, or that it was a miracle God had provided to show men His contempt for the laws of Nature. Remember now, I was looking at this scenery through the inexperienced eye of a seven year old. The realization of what we see depends very much on what we already know. Of course I was yet a novice in perspective. I saw as a child and my understanding was at fault.

We had an Indian pilot, probably selected by McKinley at Fort Walla Walla, although I do not positively remember noticing the pilot before we entered the rapids we were now approaching. At the head of those rapids the river bears from a west course a little northerly, making a very gradual curve. As we approached this bend I could hear the sound of rapids, and presently the boat began to rise and fall and rock from side to side. When we began to make the turn I could see breakers ahead extending in broken lines across the river, and the boat began to sweep along at a rapid rate. The pilot squatted low in the bow. An old red handkerchief was tied around his head and his long black hair hung down his back. There were now breakers on the right and on the left, and occasinally foam-crested waves swept across our bows. The motion of the boat had never been so excitingly delightful before—it was an exaggeration of the cradle and grape vine swing combined. I began to think this was no ordinary rapid, but felt reassured when I noticed that the older people sat quietly in their places and betrayed no sign of fear. Rocked on the heaving bosom of the great river and lulled by the medley of sounds, the two babies had fallen asleep in their mother's arms. Our boat now was about twenty yards from the right hand shore, when looking across the river I saw a smaller boat about opposite to us near the south bank. The persons in this boat were Alexander McClellan, a man about seventy years old, William Parker, probably twenty-one, and William Doke, about the same age, and three boys: Elisha Applegate, aged about eleven, and Warren and Edward Applegate, each about nine years old. This boat now near the south shore, it would seem, should have followed our boat as the pilot was with us, and this was a dangerous part of the river. But there was little time to consider mistakes or to be troubled about what might be the consequences, for presently there was