"What splendid weather we've had," exclaimed Mrs. Emerson as they took
their places on the broad deck of the handsome craft. It was not the
same one that had taken them to West Point at the end of May. This one
was named after Hendrik Hudson, the explorer of the river. They found
it to be quite as comfortable as the other, and the day went fast as
they swept down the stream with the current to aid them.
Occasionally broad reaches of the river grew narrower and wider again
as the soil had proven soft or more resistant and the water had spread
or had cut out a deep channel. Off to the west the Catskills loomed
against the sky, more varied than the Green Mountains and more rugged.
"More beautiful, too, I think," decided Ethel Blue. "I like their
roughness."
A storm came up as they passed the mountains and the thunder rumbled
unendingly among the hills.
"Listen to the Dutchmen that Rip Van Winkle saw playing bowls when he
visited them during his twenty years' nap," laughed Ethel Brown who was
a reader of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book."
"I don't wonder he felt dozy in summer with such a lovely scene to
quiet him," Mrs.
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