The fresh-water Devon River suggests the idyllic nature of the school — the sense of it as a kind of Eden. The river, where the boys have played all summer, runs through familiar farms and woods, its banks alive with pine and birch trees. Indeed, the river, flowing clear and unpolluted, symbolizes the freedom and innocence of the summer's "gypsy days."
Gene associates this river with Finny, who seems "like a river god." When Gene looks upon the Devon, he especially remembers Finny's spectacular balancing act on the prow of a canoe — his body poised effortlessly between the river and the sky — capped by his comic (rather than tragic) fall into the clear water.
But the Devon also flows into the Naguamsett River, whose murkier course suggests the darker instincts Gene must finally acknowledge as he moves toward an understanding of himself. In contrast to the Devon, the Naguamsett joins the ocean, making it subject to the tides and larger natural forces; its banks are marshy and muddy, its water salty.
The central scene of the chapter occurs here on the Naguamsett and contrasts sharply with Gene's happy memories of summer on the Devon with Finny. Without Finny, Gene withdraws into himself and in a half-hearted attempt at sports decides to become the assistant crew manager. Accordingly, he reports to Cliff Quackenbush, the sullen and humorless crew manager — a kind of anti-Finny, who presides over the boathouse and the river with a jealous spitefulness. Indeed, Quackenbush seems to be a nasty river troll rather than Finny's river god.
