Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/87

 drew in with every breath of the pure, sweet air a positive enjoyment from the very sense of life, youth, and health.

There was not breeze enough to ruffle the surface of the sea; and the calm water lay, softly pulsating at her feet, so still and clear that the intense lapis-lazuli blue of the sky, and its soft garniture of fleecy white clouds, was repeated upon its unbroken surface as clearly as in a mirror.

As Alice stood and gazed, her spirits rising within her at the profuse beauty showered all around her, she experienced that almost universal desire for rapid motion which is oftenest expressed in the common words "wanted to fly;" but as that kind of locomotion was then, as now, out of the question, her next thought was naturally of her little boat, which was moored close by.

In a moment, without pause or reflection, she had embarked and rowed gayly from the shore.

Those who love the water are accustomed to speak in ardent terms of the thrilling enjoyment they find in being upon it; it may be in the exultant sense of superiority that