When Walking In The
Interior There, In The Midst Of Rural Scenery, Where There Was As
Little To Remind Me
Of the ocean as amid the New Hampshire hills,
I have suddenly, through a gap, a cleft or "clove road,
" As the
Dutch settlers called it, caught sight of a ship under full sail,
over a field of corn, twenty or thirty miles at sea. The effect
was similar, since I had no means of measuring distances, to
seeing a painted ship passed backwards and forwards through a
magic-lantern.
But to return to the mountain. It seemed as if he must be the
most singular and heavenly minded man whose dwelling stood
highest up the valley. The thunder had rumbled at my heels all
the way, but the shower passed off in another direction, though
if it had not, I half believed that I should get above it. I at
length reached the last house but one, where the path to the
summit diverged to the right, while the summit itself rose
directly in front. But I determined to follow up the valley to
its head, and then find my own route up the steep as the shorter
and more adventurous way. I had thoughts of returning to this
house, which was well kept and so nobly placed, the next day, and
perhaps remaining a week there, if I could have entertainment.
Its mistress was a frank and hospitable young woman, who stood
before me in a dishabille, busily and unconcernedly combing her
long black hair while she talked, giving her head the necessary
toss with each sweep of the comb, with lively, sparkling eyes,
and full of interest in that lower world from which I had come,
talking all the while as familiarly as if she had known me for
years, and reminding me of a cousin of mine.
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