Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/192

 l82

��Lake Wmnifiscogcc in October.

��Ellacoya in her deerskin robes and porcupine embroideries would be laughed at ; so would the milk-maid of Addison's and Johnson's day, in her dress of linsey-woolsey, and roses in her hair.

Again seated upon the deck of the " Mount Washington," we glide down the narrow inlet around which Centre Harbor is built, and follow the shad- ows, while

" Slow up the slopes of Ossipee They chase the lessening light."

Again I lean over the railing of the stern, and follow with dreamy gaze the serpentine track of the vessel as it winds among the islands in its course. As of yore, I turn my eager eyes to catch a glimpse of some tall mountain summit, as now here, now

��and there a gleam of pale gold to mark the place of some solitary elm or birch. Scarcely less brilliant are the hills around, that like Titanic Dolly Yardens loom up in all the splendor of autumn's red and gold, coquettishly bright and winsome when the sun's rays fall upon them, or looking frowningly beneath his mo- mentary beclouding.

And now the shadows begin slowly to fall. Old Gunstock, directly op- posite, towards the setting sun, first dons its sombre mantle, and turns a coldly jealous face to the lower hills that with their gorgeously tinted slopes lie rosy and radiant beneath the kisses of the recreant sun-god, who finds time to bestow a smile even upon Mount Belknap, whose rugged

��there, somebody exclaims, "There is peak reddens and frowns by turns,

��Chocorua!" "Red Hill!" "Ossipee Mountains !" "Copple-Crown !" It had been a dull gray day ; but before we reached our destination the sun sudden- ly peeped out from- the sodden clouds, and looked at us with a cordial smile, as if to atone for all his previous coldness. Before us stretches the lake, gorgeous from reflection, glitter- ing beneath the lingering sunshine like burnished steel, while in far away cove and inlet it deepens into sluidowy indistinctness, and farther still stretches a dull gra}', monoto- nous calm. Huge shadows loiter over the two Belknap Hills, and northward distant Chocorua lifts his bleached liead, so tenderly touched now with gray and gold, like some great re- cumbent monster keeping guard over his watery domain. On the nearest shore is a wide stretch of lawn and tillage land, fringed with scarlet su- machs and flaming maples, with here

��as if pleased in spite of itself with attentions that it knows only too well will be as quickly withdrawn. Even the little islands, with their gay col- ored adornings, catch an unusual brightness from the fast descending rays, and watch their own reflections in the placid mirror of the lake with something like satisfaction. Lower and lower he sinks — our faithless Apollo ; closer and more closely he draws the cloudy curtains of his char- iot about his retreating face. Cool and chill the mountain air strikes up- on us, with a hint of frostiness in it that all of October's glorious pageant- ry cannot make us quite oblivious of. And now grand old Copple-Crown in the south-east grows sternly dark, and Tumble Down Dick lifts its one sided height gloomily ; the lower peaks are enshrouded in twilight; the lingering glow upon the lake fades into a dull leaden sray ; the

��night

�� �