Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/168

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��The White and Francpnia Mountains.

��of water surrounded by lofty mountains, a fit home for nymj^hs and naiads.

" I should like to read ' Manfred ' here," said Molly one morning (Eyron was one of her favorites). ''It is just the place, mountains, forests and all, and who knows — the wizzard."

" There is the Old Man of the Moun- tain ; perhaps he would volunteer," sug- gested Fritz.

" I thought it was a witch," observed the indefinite person.

" Well, it matters not which it was,"

���SILVER CASCADE IN THE NOTCH.

��said Molly, seeing that we were attempt- ing to badger her. " Here is the hour and the scene."

"But the man, O, where is he?" cried Fritz.

" The truth is, we cannot appreciate Byron till we come here," pursued Molly. " If we could only have a temp- est now. Ah, I can imagine those mountain Alps. How beautiful and grand it is. Within this wide domain ro- mance, science, and nature, murmur an eternal anthem, which wooes for ever)' soul that finds itself herein a new aspira- tion, and a realization that, after all our study and care, we have appreciated creation so lightly !"

That afternoon Molly had her wished- for tempest. The heat had been sultry, but by five o 'clock a heavy wind began to blow and hugh billows of clouds be- gan to appear above the tops of the mountains. The sky grew blacker every moment. By and by a mighty river of clouds began to pour itself down over the peaks into the valley below ; one by one each haughty crest disappeared be- neath the flood. In a few moments every ravine was filled with rolling mas- ses of clouds and the rain was falling in sheets. We could trace its rapid flight over the space between the hotel and the distant mountains. A gentle- man who has been at the Profile House for several sum- mers said that he had never seen so grand a storm-cloud as the one just described. When the storm was past and the clouds began to melt away, it was natural enough that we should call to mind the following passage from " Lucile : "

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