Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/404

Rh well. She could not, however, perfectly penetrate those grey mantles.

We advanced deeper and deeper into the bosom of the mountains, by solitary roads, upon which we did not meet a single human being through the whole day. Already had the night set in. Whether it was the influence of the giants or not I cannot say, but I felt no sensation of weariness from the long day's journey, nay, indeed, I could very well have proceeded onward through the night. About midnight we reached our quarters, and it was with the utmost difficulty, and by making a loud noise at the door, that we could wake the landlord of the little inn. At last, however, we succeeded, and the landlord sleepy but kind and hearty, made us a fire, and prepared all that we required for refreshment and our night's rest.

11th.—A beautiful, bright morning, an enchanting morning ramble. Morning dew on the grass, in the soul, in life! The memory of the Vala Song, and its prophecy of the renovation of human beings born from dew! The heavens were a hallelujah—I have known such in the New World ! They live in my soul, enweave themselves into pictures of the imagination, long prefigured but treasured in the silent workshop of the soul. How strange! Beneath the wild heaven of South Carolina, I would merely enjoy, and, enjoying, sing praises. Here I enjoy also, but in another manner. The soul is more powerful, more alive It receives merely to give in return. It will produce—it will work. The dramatic life in the mountains, and in the mountain-streams, forests, clouds, and sunbeams, awaken the dramatic life within myself, and call into life pictures and scenes which have lain in swaddling-bands within my soul for fifteen or twenty years. They and I celebrate this morning as a festival of the resurrection. The groves are full of the songs of birds.

We shall in the afternoon proceed onward.