de this view both grand and charming.
Nature does not always put the needed dash of poetry into her extensive
prospects.

Leaving this clearing and the now neglected spring, where fashion used
to slake its thirst, we zigzagged down the mountain-side through a
forest of trees growing at every step larger and nobler, and at length
struck a small stream, the North Fork of the Swannanoa, which led us to
the first settlement. Just at night,--it was nearly seven o'clock,--we
entered one of the most stately forests I have ever seen, and rode for
some distance in an alley of rhododendrons that arched overhead and made
a bower. It was like an aisle in a temple; high overhead was the somber,
leafy roof, supported by gigantic columns. Few widows have such an
avenue of approach to their domain as the Widow Patten has.

Cheering as this outcome was from the day's struggle and storm, the
Professor seemed sunk in a profound sadness. The auguries which the
Friend drew from these signs of civilization of a charming inn and a
royal supper did not lighten the melancholy of his mind. "Alas," he
said,

"Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
'T is not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief:
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss."

"Loss of what?" cried the Friend, as he whipped up his halting steed.

"Loss of self-respect. I feel humiliated that I consented to climb this
mountain."

"Nonsense! You'll live to thank me for it, as the best thing you ever
did. It's over and done now, and you've got it to tell your friends."

"That's just the trouble. They'll ask me if I went up Mitchell, and I
shall have to say I did. My character for consistency is gone. Not that
I care much what they think, but my own self-respect is gone. I never
believed I would do it. A man ca'nt afford to lower himself in his own
esteem, at my time of life."

The Widow Patten's was only an advanced settlement in this narrow valley
on the mountain-side, but a little group of buildings, a fence, and a
gate gave it the air of a place, and it had once been better cared
for than it is now. Few travelers pass that way, and t