Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/171

 77^1? IVhiie and Francovia Mountains.

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��Crawford House. Up the valley of the Ammonoosuc to the Twin Mountain House, which takes its name from two prominent peaks of the Franconia range, is a delightful ride. We are now in the midst of the mountain region, the White Mountain plateau. Here nature, en dis- halnlle, with locks unkempt and loos- ened zone, reclines at ease in her most secret chamber, beyond the reach of intrusion, and neither thinking of, nor

��in Indian myth blew the breeze from, the Land of Souls."

"Do you remember the other time we were here, Molly?" asked Fritz, "and the beautiful moonlight evenings we enjoyed? "

" Oh, yes. How many nights we sat here or promenaded among the trees. It was in September and the moon was full. As she arose over the eastern hills and threw her light upon the valley be-

���SQUAM LAKE AND MOUNT CriOCORUA.

��caring for, the critical philosophy of the outside world ; an emerald-crowned Cleopatra, revelling in the midst of her great vassals.

The Twin Mountain House, like Fab- yan's and the Crawford House, is a post-office. It is a hostelry, also, that is not surpassed in its management, cui- sine or in magnificence by any in the chain.

" It is good to be here," said Molly,

Iving back in her chair on the long

piazza, " while the wmd blows fair, as

��neath, I never saw her more majestic- The soft, mellow radiance of the queen of night filled every nook and crevice with light. The trees waved their branches, and beckoned the woodland nymphs forth to a dance on the green. Surely, it seems as if Shakespeare must have had just such evenings in his mind when he wrote " Midsummer Night's- Dream."

" Ah, that was a 'Lover's Pilgrimage,' "' obser\ed Fritz, grimly, "now it is a pil- grimage for — "

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