The Hills
Approached Nearer And Nearer To The Stream, Until At Last They
Closed Behind Me, And I Found Myself Just Before Nightfall In A
Romantic And Retired Valley, About Half A Mile In Length, And
Barely Wide Enough For The Stream At Its Bottom.
I thought that
there could be no finer site for a cottage among mountains.
You
could anywhere run across the stream on the rocks, and its
constant murmuring would quiet the passions of mankind forever.
Suddenly the road, which seemed aiming for the mountain-side,
turned short to the left, and another valley opened, concealing
the former, and of the same character with it. It was the most
remarkable and pleasing scenery I had ever seen. I found here a
few mild and hospitable inhabitants, who, as the day was not
quite spent, and I was anxious to improve the light, directed me
four or five miles farther on my way to the dwelling of a man
whose name was Rice, who occupied the last and highest of the
valleys that lay in my path, and who, they said, was a rather
rude and uncivil man. But "what is a foreign country to those
who have science? 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.
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