Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/118

 owning the highest peak of the Catskills. Slide Mountain has, I believe, an altitude of four thousand feet. I understand that the view from it is marvelous; that the trees are so stunted by heavy snows that their flattened branches appear like a table from which one can look down and off on a vast amphitheater of rocks, trout streams and picturesque hamlets. But scenery is not a tangible commodity, and the people regard the project as a wild-cat scheme."

"That section of the country is one of the driest atmospheric belts in the State and its healthfulness is an accepted fact. This with its magnificent forests and undoubted mineral deposits would, in my estimation, warrant running a branch through."

"Oh! well, let us complete this one before we agitate that." And with a gay laugh he sprang into his carriage and was off for Kingston.

Hernando and Elisha were mutually attracted toward each other from the first. One true nature instinctively understands