catching his breath. He'd come out
near the foot of the pool, where the ripples
were pushing upstream in shallow arcs
evenly spaced. The waterfall was bright white,
small and steady. It dropped from the V
formed by a pair of big, clean boulders
up above. And it can't be improved upon,
he thought.
where the slope was steep and the trees
and the undergrowth too dense for a hiker
to force. He was alone with the place.
he'd squeezed a big sandwich into.
He positioned three river-stones on
the slope, to set the box upon. It was almost
level. He drew out his thermos, steadied it
between his boots, and with the edge
of a piece of fl at, thin sandstone
that had broken cleanly, loosened
and levelled the soil between two rocks,
unscrewed the thermos cup, and pressed
the rounded bottom into the ground,
rotating it back and forth, to make a socket
for the cup to stand in; and then slowly
fi lled the cup with coff ee. He replaced
the stopper and laid the thermos on the slope,