fall. Take
my arm; the brink may be icy. Lo! the abyss!'

'Magnificent! What a rush of waters! How the swollen stream foams and
rages!'

'And see! the pathway under the shelving rock where we passed in summer is
completely colonnaded by a row of tall ice pillars; gigantic,
symmetrical--fluted, even. What Corinthian shaft ever equalled them! What
capital ever rivalled the delicacy or grace of those ice-and-hemlock
wreaths about their summits!'

'And see those pines, rank above rank, higher and higher; stately and
still and snow-robed like tall centinels! Perhaps, Sear Leaf, the Old
Guard might have stood thus in the Russian snows over NAPOLEON, when he
bivouacked on the hill-side, and sought rest while his spirit was as
wildly tossed as the waters that dash beneath us.'

'Yes, Lady; or it may be that these trees in their perpetual green, in
their calmness and dignity, may be emblematic of the way in which the
angels who watch on earth look down on man. Perfect rest on perfect
unrest.'

'Ah! you grow gloomy.'

'Took I not my hue from you? On, then, for the higher fall!'

'These trees seem to have increased in stature since the summer we were
here. As we proceed, the snow lies thicker on them, and the branches seem
closer locked; the roof overhead more complete. How still the woods are!
Our very foot-fall is noiseless.'

Influenced by the scene, they pass on in silence along the path which
leads round the foot of the cone-like hill toward the cottage by the
higher Falls, whose deep roar now breaks upon the ear, and rolls through
the motionless forest. Thus then the Lady to Sear Leaf:

'Has GOD any other temple like this?'

'Never a one, reared by any hand save His!'

'What organ ever rolled so deep a bass through arches so grand! See how
the sunlight glances amid the gnarled branches of the roof, and here and
there falls through on the floor below; making those low icy forms look
like the shrubs of the valley of diamonds in the eastern story. Just so it
is that the light of truth struggles through entangled and dark mazes of
human error, and here and there illuminate some humble mind with its pure
ray; while others, tall and strong and haughty, like those old trees, are
left darkened.'

'You have a noble nature, and should be nobly mated. But here we are upon
the brow of the hill which leads to the cottage. The snow is deeper here:
gently, now; a slide down this bank might check even _your_ enthusiasm.
Tak