Who Is A Stranger To Those Who Have The Habit
Of Speaking Kindly?"
At length, as the sun was setting behind the mountains in a still
darker and more solitary vale, I reached the dwelling of this
man.
Except for the narrowness of the plain, and that the stones
were solid granite, it was the counterpart of that retreat to
which Belphoebe bore the wounded Timias, -
"In a pleasant glade,
With mountains round about environed,
And mighty woods, which did the valley shade,
And like a stately theatre it made,
Spreading itself into a spacious plain;
And in the midst a little river played
Amongst the pumy stones which seemed to plain,
With gentle murmur, that his course they did restrain."
I observed, as I drew near, that he was not so rude as I had
anticipated, for he kept many cattle, and dogs to watch them, and
I saw where he had made maple-sugar on the sides of the
mountains, and above all distinguished the voices of children
mingling with the murmur of the torrent before the door. As I
passed his stable I met one whom I supposed to be a hired man,
attending to his cattle, and I inquired if they entertained
travellers at that house. "Sometimes we do," he answered,
gruffly, and immediately went to the farthest stall from me, and
I perceived that it was Rice himself whom I had addressed. But
pardoning this incivility to the wildness of the scenery, I bent
my steps to the house. There was no sign-post before it, nor any
of the usual invitations to the traveller, though I saw by the
road that many went and came there, but the owner's name only was
fastened to the outside; a sort of implied and sullen invitation,
as I thought. I passed from room to room without meeting any
one, till I came to what seemed the guests' apartment, which was
neat, and even had an air of refinement about it, and I was glad
to find a map against the wall which would direct me on my
journey on the morrow. At length I heard a step in a distant
apartment, which was the first I had entered, and went to see if
the landlord had come in; but it proved to be only a child, one
of those whose voices I had heard, probably his son, and between
him and me stood in the doorway a large watch-dog, which growled
at me, and looked as if he would presently spring, but the boy
did not speak to him; and when I asked for a glass of water, he
briefly said, "It runs in the corner." So I took a mug from the
counter and went out of doors, and searched round the corner of
the house, but could find neither well nor spring, nor any water
but the stream which ran all along the front. I came back,
therefore, and, setting down the mug, asked the child if the
stream was good to drink; whereupon he seized the mug, and, going
to the corner of the room, where a cool spring which issued from
the mountain behind trickled through a pipe into the apartment,
filled it, and drank, and gave it to me empty again, and, calling
to the dog, rushed out of doors.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 114 of 221
Words from 59565 to 60123
of 116321
