nd there at the foot
of some sturdy oak or wide-branched apple, until I reached the little
stream that comes rippling down from the mountain glen. A short walk
across the fields under the burning sun brought me into the shadow of
the trees that skirt the borders of the woodland. The brook loitered
between its green and sloping banks and broke in tiny billows over the
smooth stones that lay in its bed; the shadows grew denser as I
advanced, and a delicious coolness from the depths of the woods touched
the sultry atmosphere. A moment later, and I stood within the glen.
The world of human activity had vanished, shut out of sight and sound
by the deepening foliage of the trees behind me. Overhead hardly a
leaf stirred, but the branching boughs spread a marvellous roof between
the heavens and the woodland paths, and suffered only a stray flash of
light here and there to strike through. As I advanced slowly along the
well-worn path beside the brook, the glen grew more and more narrow,
the hillsides more and more precipitous. In the dusky light that
sifted down through the great trees I felt the delicious relief of low
tones after the glare of the summer day. It was another world into
which I had come; a world of unbroken repose and silence, a world of
sweet and fragrant airs cooled by the mountain rivulet and shielded by
the mountain summits and the arching umbrage.

The path vanished at last and nothing remained but the narrow channel
of the brook itself, the smooth stones making a precarious and
uncertain footing for the adventurous explorer. How soothing was the
ceaseless plash of that little stream, fretting its moss-grown banks
and dashing in miniature surge against the stones in its path! What
infinite peace reigned in this place, around which the brotherhood of
mountains had gathered, to hold it inviolate against all comers! The
great rocks were moss-covered, the steep slopes on either side were
faintly flecked with light, and one saw here and there, through the
clustered trunks of trees, a gleam of blue sky. Sometimes the brook
narrowed to a tiny stream, rushing with impetuous current between the
rocky walls that formed its channel; then it spread out shallow and
noisy over some broader expanse of white sand and polished pebble; then
it loitered in the shadow of a great rock and became a deep, silent
pool, full of shadows and the mysteries which lurk in such remote and
dusky places.

It was beside such a