New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-04-25

breeze So drffed in the slow ebb past the South
Goodwin and I thought, What is all this drifting
and doing nothing? Let US play the fool and see
If there no adventures left
SO ! PUT my little boat about until the wind took
her from forward such as it was, and size e-avvied
out to sea but most of the time the sails happed
uselessIy. But after II o'clock the wind rose and
then shifted little and then blew light and steady g
and then last she h=eIeE. and the water spoke
under her bows. and still she ueeed and ran. until
in the haze / could more land. bIt ever 50
far out there were no seas, for the light. full!
breeze was with the tide, the tide was e15-lS ouI
allow the hidden parallels Of the narrow sea And
] held this little wind TIL about O clock, when /
drank wine and ate bread ana meat IT the tiIler,
for I had them by me, and just afterward still
through q thick haze OF heat. / saw GriZ-reZ,
huge gncst right Up aSaust ana above me and 1
wondered. for I htd crossed the Channel now for
the first time. and knew now w.Ic II felt Ike to
see land.
Though / knew nothing Of the place. I had this
much sense that ] said 10 myself. The tide is
right down the Channel. racing through the hidden
valleys under the marrow -et. SO II VIII a+ go
down together. and the flood viii come up on this
foreign side much at the same hour that it does
on the home side Ny boat Law the east, and
the eba tide held her down. and 7 lit a pipe and
looked at the French hills and thought ABOUT them
and the people i'm them and ENGLAND. which i had
lift behind and ! was delighted with the LoueIi-
ness of the sea, and still I waited for the flood
a
noise and she lay quite slack and swung oddly
AMI then there were little boiling and eddyin=
places i'm rne water and the water seemed come
up from underneath sometimes, and altogether 1t
behaved very strangely. and this tA' turn of
tile tide Then tile wind dropped also. and for
moment she toIlopped about Til after I had some
blow and Strengthened Things 1 came on deck to
soc that she had turned completely round and that
the tide al last was making up my way toward
t.luis and NE. chain Nas and her nose pointed
down the Channel ANA westerly breeze. a little
dr:t OF air came cool along the tide.
When this came I was very glad for [ saw that
/ could end my adventure before night So pulled
UP the anchor and fshed it, and then turned with
the tide under and the sIisht half felt breeze
just barely nIIed the maiasail and / ran up along
that high coast, watching eagerly FOR every new
thing, but / kept some way out for fear of the
shoals. till after three good hours under the re-
Ginning o the afternoon. which slortfed the
mist / Sd ", of. the roofs and spires OF town
and a pier running out sea, and I knew 70
must be Calais. And ran for those piers careless
of how I went for already half of the spring
flood tide. and everything was surely well covered
for SO small a boat. and / up the fairway in
between the piers, and Frenchuen walking
about and a great gun pe"pins over its earJhwork
and plenty OF clean, new masonry. And a man
came aiong and showed me where I could lie. but
was 50 strange to the place that 1 would take
a berth. lay that night moored To English
ship.
And I thought, Here is wonderful thing, I
have crossed the Channel IN this little boat. and
know now what the means that separates
France from England. / have strained my eyes
for shore through haze have seen new lands
and feel 80 who have dreaHt dreams
But In reality I had had very great luck indeed
and had had no right 10 cross. for ing coming back
was far more difficult and dreadful. and / was 10
suffer many things before again ] could see tall
En- gland. close o. me. out OF the sea