man
lives. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which
came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, and
wherever he communed with himself, were of a higher tone than those
which all men shared with him. A simple soul--simple as when his mother
first taught him the old prophecy--he beheld the marvellous features
beaming adown the valley, and still wondered that their human
counterpart was so long in making his appearance.

By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest
part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the body and spirit
of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of
him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin.
Since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally conceded
that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the
ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the
mountainside. So the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime,
and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his decease. Once in
a while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the
magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been
turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of
whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the
Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. Gathergold being discredited and thrown into
the shade, the man of prophecy was yet to come.

It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before,
had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting,
had now become an illustrious commander. Whatever he may be called in
history, he was known in camps and on the battlefield under the nickname
of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This war-worn veteran, being now infirm with
age and wounds, and weary of the turmoil of a military life, and of the
roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so long been
ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of returning to his
native valley, hoping to find repose where he remembered to have left
it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their grown-up children, were
resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a salute of cannon and a
public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically, it being affirmed
that now, at last, the likeness of the Great Stone Face had actually
appeared. An aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder,