He had not read the newspapers.
An hour later, Paul blew his bugle in front of a farm house that stood near the river.

The people ran to the water's edge and began firing a broadside of down east interrogatives with such rapidity as to nearly swamp him.
"Ain't yeou nearly drowned ?" "Ain't yeou afeard yeou will be ?" "Ain't yeou hungry ?" "Ain't yeou cold ?" "Ain't yeou hot ?" "Kin yeou keep awake ?" "Ef yeou cain't, would yeou sink ?" "Air yeou a orphing ?", "Dew yeou like the water ?" "What circuse dew yeou belong tew ?" "Who hired yeou tew dew this ?" "Why on airth dew yeou travel this way fur instead of in a boat ?" Paul could not stand the rapid fire system of the New Hampshire rustics, and with a pained expression on his face he, pulled silently out of hearing.

The narrowing river brought him closer to the banks, and as he was forging ahead an old gentleman hailed him.

Paul stopped for a moment and was sorry for it, as the man tried to chill his blood with doleful stories of the dangers in the river below.

"Yeou air goin' straight ahead tew destruction," he bellowed, "thar's a whirlpool jist ahead, where six lumbermen was drowned one time." Boyton had no fear of sharing the fate of the lumbermen, so he pushed ahead, leaving the old man standing on the bank with clasped hands and pained expression.
The voyager shortly reached the junction of Squam river, and there encountered the first waterfall.