AUNT HARRIET: I always enjoy singing the hymn : "We are watching, we are waiting For the bright prophetic day, DR. PAULUS: God grant that we may all see that day and rejoice. MRS. MERRIMAN: It seems hardly possible, however, that war can ever again visit these peaceful scenes. For the present and for all the future they appear to be dedicated to peaceful occupation and the rest and refreshment of weary toilers. A hundred years does not seem so very long ago, and yet in that time the character of this region has been completely changed. THE COLONEL: Greatly as I deplore the horrors of war, I sometimes think that it is by no means the worst enemy of mankind. ALBERT: "Better to die with glory, than recline The COLONEL: Exactly, and then we must remember that war, as an extreme resort, is often a national duty. It is a duty for the American government to defend the settlers on the frontier from the attacks of the savages. I admit, of course, the many wrongs which have been done to the Indians. AUNT HARRIET: At least three-fourths of the wars that have arisen on earth have been disgraceful to the humanity and common sense of all concerned; but I cannot penetrate the mystery of sin, and I do not know that any of us can do more than simply let our lives, with whatever of influence they are crowned, preach forth the doctrine of love and brotherhood, and then hope in God for the rest. LILIAN: Meanwhile, my dear Aunt, may we not rejoice in the glory God sends around us in these beautiful summer days of life? May we not draw from such scenes as we have been visiting a lesson of trust in the workings of Divine Provi dence, notwithstanding the gloom and the storm through which we must sometimes pass? I would like, before leaving this beautiful lake in its mountain setting, to quote a few verses from Whittier's "Summer by the Lakeside": CHAPTER XIX. THE ADIRONDACKS. ILBERT: I dare not attempt to give you a description of the Adirondack wilderness, for I am not going to write a book; but I have half a dozen views which will occupy us probably during the rest of this evening. It is You all know where to find this great region on the map. in itself almost a kingdom for extent, and its sovereign is Nature. is too rugged, too wild, too far-off from the routes of business traffic, and perhaps of too little value in a mineral sense to become a "hive of industry." It is a vast, mountainous, lumbering, and fishing country, a hundred miles by one hundred and fifty in extent, and, a generation ago, was trodden only by the hunter, the trapper, and the lumberman. It has no sites in it for great cities; its rivers are mountain streams; its roads are bridle paths or tangled and rocky footways. Its carriages are the lightest of boats, one of which will carry two or three people on the lakes and streams, and can then be carried on the shoulders of a man until it is again needed, which will be before long, you may be sure. Its hackmen are guides at two or three dollars a day, all found. As travelers in the Adirondacks live mostly on the fish they catch and the deer they shoot down, the actual money cost of living per head is not very great. But then it is necessary that somebody in the party should know how to fire a gun and handle a fishing rod. Mere book-learning, college degrees, polished manners, and even money, will not suffice to obtain a meal for one hungry man, not to say several people. If ladies accompany the party, as they sometimes do, they must put aside the attire of the city and don a costume half Mohammedan and half modern-short dresses, Turkish drawers that fasten tightly at the ankle, thick boots, felt hat, buckskin gloves, and armlets to fasten tightly at the wrist. They will then be comparatively mosquito proof, a very necessary point—for even one mosquito or forest fly may prove a formidable enemy. To those who cannot sleep except upon a regulation bed under a ceiling, and to whom the daily newspaper is a necessity of existence, there are hotels here and there in which the tourist can find everything to his hand; but to understand life in the Adirondacks one has to step outside of these conventional habits, to learn how to launch and paddle one's own canoe, to hunt, to fish, to build one's own camp at evening by some rippling brook, or on the shores of a still lake, to light a camp fire, and to sleep serenely, wrapped in a blanket, upon a couch of twigs. And it is wonderful how soon one gets not only accustomed to but even enamored of this sort of life. The days and weeks glide by; "the world recedes and disappears ;' the stars become strangely familiar to us through the forest trees; the face and hands grow tawny; dyspepsia and headache fly away; and when the time comes for returning to civilization and business it is with no little regret that one turns away from this unkempt but salubrious and attractive wilderness. I have here a beautiful picture of Preston Pond. Near by is a rugged Indian pass through which the hunters and trappers have long traveled from north to south. We may now consider ourselves in the very heart and center of the Adirondacks. Can you conceive of anything more solitary, stupendous, grand, and yet inviting to the tourist in search of these features in Nature? We have not here the ruggedness of outline of the Rocky Mountains, nor their immense elevation, and their eternal snows; and yet I do not know but that, in some respects, I prefer such scenery as this. These mountain peaks are high enough to climb for me. Some of them are over five thousand feet high, and there are five ranges of them-over five hundred mountains, and over a thousand lakes embosomed among them, with a vast, rugged, silent forest, seemingly immeasurable—that is to say, when you are living in it; and deer and other game innumerable, besides fish in plenty. I do not know whether Longfellow ever spent a fortnight in the Adirondacks, but I think there is much force and feeling in his words-though I cannot speak from experience of any wearing sorrows or hard work: "If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows that thou wouldst forget If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep |
