Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/402

 376 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1857,

make it short. It did not take very long to get over the mountain, you thought ; but have you got over it indeed ? If you have been to the top of Mount Washington, let me ask, what did you find there? That is the way they prove wit nesses, you know. Going up there and being- blown on is nothing. We never do much climb ing while we are there, but we eat our luncheon, etc., very much as at home. It is after we get home that we really go over the mountain, if ever. What did the mountain say? What did the mountain do ?

I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a lit tle way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad base spreads over a vil lage or two, which do not know it ; neither does it know them, nor do I when I ascend it. I can see its general outline as plainly now in nry mind as that of Wachusett. I do not invent in the least, but state exactly what I see. I find that I go up it when I am light-footed and earnest. It ever smokes like an altar with its sacrifice. I am not aware that a single villager frequents it or knows of it. I keep this mountain to ride instead of a horse.

Do you not mistake about seeing Moosehead Lake from Mount Washington ? That must be about one hundred and twenty miles distant, or nearly twice as far as the Atlantic, which last