Now it slipped on quietly enough, contenting itself with turning a flour-mill hard by, the lazy whirr of which made a sleepy, incessant monotone which I was fond of hearing.
From the opposite bank stretched a wide green level, called the Ham--dotted with pasturing cattle of all sorts.

Beyond it was a second river, forming an arch of a circle round the verdant flat.

But the stream itself lay so low as to be invisible from where we sat; you could only trace the line of its course by the small white sails that glided in and out, oddly enough, from behind clumps of trees, and across meadow lands.
They attracted John's attention.

"Those can't be boats, surely.

Is there water there ?" "To be sure, or you would not see the sails.