At Rivermouth matters were different, and I was not long in adapting myself to the altered circumstances.

Of course I got many severe rubs, often unconsciously given; but I had the sense to see that I was all the better for them.
My social relations with my new schoolfellows were the pleasantest possible.

There was always some exciting excursion on foot--a ramble through the pine woods, a visit to the Devil's Pulpit, a high cliff in the neighborhood--or a surreptitious low on the river, involving an exploration of a group of diminutive islands, upon one of which we pitched a tent and played we were the Spanish sailors who got wrecked there years ago.

But the endless pine forest that skirted the town was our favorite haunt.

There was a great green pond hidden somewhere in its depths, inhabited by a monstrous colony of turtles.