In  full,  deep  knowledge  of  their  task,
To  suffer  and  to  die."

"  The  rain  was  over  and  gone,"  and  the
afternoon  was  so  serene  and  beautiful,  we
all  sailed  down  to  the  shore,  and  soon  filled


A    LEGEND    OF   THE   DELAWARE   WATER   GAP.      131

the  only  boat  belonging  to  the  establish-
ment. Josephine,  a  very  lovely  girl  from
Baltimore,  sat,  like  the  queen  of  beauty,  on
the  prow  of  the  boat,  singing  snatches  of
old  songs,  in  the  gayety  of  her  heart.  She
was  one  of  the  brightest-looking  beings  I
ever  belield;  tall  and  graceful,  with  a  face
of  uncommon  loveliness;  her  complexion
was  soft  and  transparent,  and  the  slightest
emotion  tinted  her  delicate  cheek  with  the
glow  of  damask  rose ;  her  eyes  of  dark  blue
were  shaded  by  long  black  lashes,  which
imparted  a  peculiar  tenderness  to  their  ex-
pression ;  her  hair,  also  black,  clustered  in
short  thick  curls  around  her  small  and  finely
shaped  head.  Occasionally,  she  would  pause
in  her  songs,  and  a  shade  of  sorrow,  it  might
be  of  memory,  would  flit  across  her  face.
An  enthusiast  in  her  love  of  nature,  she
sat  gazing  upon  the  beautiful  scenery,  now
warbling  like  a  bird,  and  anon  calling  our
attention  to  some  bold  projecting  cliff,  that
looked  from  its  elevation  ready  to  fall  and
crush  us.
As  our  boat  glided  into  the  deep  waters
of  the  Gap,  we  all  kept  silence.  Shut  out
from  the  world  by  the  towering  mountains


132  DELAWARE   WATER    GAP.
