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. She at first had
taken me for a student from Williamstown, for they went by in
parties, she said, either riding or walking, almost every
pleasant day, and were a pretty wild set of fellows; but they
never went by the way I was going. As I passed the last house, a
man called out to know what I had to sell, for seeing my
knapsack, he thought that I might be a pedler who was taking this
unusual route over the ridge of the valley into South Adams. He
told me that it was still four or five miles to the summit by the
path which I had left, though not more than two in a straight
line from where I was, but that nobody ever went this way; there
was no path, and I should find it as steep as the roof of a
house. But I knew that I was more used to woods and mountains
than he, and went along through his cow-yard, while he, looking
at the sun, shouted after me that I should not get to the top
that night. I soon reached the head of the valley, but as I
could not see the summit from this point, I ascended a low
mountain on the opposite side, and took its bearing with my
compass. I at once entered the woods, and began to climb the
steep side of the mountain in a diagonal direction, taking the
bearing of a tree every dozen rods. The ascent was by no means
difficult or unpleasant, and occupied much less time than it
would have taken to follow the path. Even country people, I have
observed, magnify the difficulty of travelling in the forest, and
especially among mountains. They seem to lack their usual common
sense in this. I have climbed several higher mountains without
guide or path, and have found, as might be expected, that it
takes only more time and patience commonly than to travel the
smoothest highway. It is very rare that you meet with obstacles
in this world which the humblest man has not faculties to
surmount. It is true we may come to a perpendicular precipice,
but we need not jump off nor run our heads against it. A man may
jump down his own cellar stairs or dash his brains out against
his chimney, if he is mad. So far as my experience goes,
travellers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way.
Like most evil, the difficulty is imaginary; for what's the
hurry? If a person lost would conclude that after all he is not
lost, he is not beside himself, but standing in his own old shoes
on the very spot where he is, and that for the time being he will
live there; but the places that have known him, _they_ are
lost, - how much anxiety and danger would vanish. I am not alone
if I stand by myself. Who knows where in space this globe is
rolling? Yet we will not give ourselves up for lost, let it go
where it will.
I made my way steadily upward in a straight line through a dense
undergrowth of mountain laurel, until the trees began to have a
scraggy and infernal look, as if contending with frost goblins,
and at length I reached the summit, just as the sun was setting.
Several acres here had been cleared, and were covered with rocks
and stumps, and there was a rude observatory in the middle which
overlooked the woods. I had one fair view of the country before
the sun went down, but I was too thirsty to waste any light in
viewing the prospect, and set out directly to find water. First,
going down a well-beaten path for half a mile through the low
scrubby wood, till I came to where the water stood in the tracks
of the horses which had carried travellers up, I lay down flat,
and drank these dry, one after another, a pure, cold, spring-like
water, but yet I could not fill my dipper, though I contrived
little siphons of grass-stems, and ingenious aqueducts on a small
scale; it was too slow a process.
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