76 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



to you all the way, and in response, you 

 plunge your hand in its clear depths and 

 drink from your palm this wondrous 

 water as cold as ice. 



You feel the stirrings of present life 



like a bird before, except in an automo- 

 bile at sixty miles an hour. Now you 

 are not a bird flying through the air : but 

 instead you are as one that is perched 

 on some high tree-top; a mere speck of 



ECHO LAKE AND WHITE HORSE LEDGE. 



"Now you are not a bird flying through the air ; but instead you are as one perched upon some 



treetop ; a mere speck of breathing life beholding things as they are." 



Illustrations from the Boston & Maine Railroad. 



and joy. Perhaps you are fortunate 

 enough to come upon a wild deer, or to 

 see a fox rush across the trail, almost 

 in front of vou. 



Next, you climb some mountain-top. 

 its name holds no significance for vou, 

 for it is all a part of a marvelous whole, 

 and as it reveals that whole to your re- 

 sponsive gaze you catch your breath, 

 dizzy and amazed. There, below yon, 

 sweeps the famous Crawford Notch, 

 while in the distance looms Mount Wash- 

 ington. You have become a mere speck 

 in the sky. You imagine how small a 

 bird must feel. You have never felt 



breathing life beholding things as a 

 whole. You feel that birds must be 

 more broad-minded than men to thus 

 always behold life from a height. Then 

 at night, solitary and dreaming, you 

 wander out to view the beauteous scene 

 in the subdued light of the moon. At 

 first dim clouds float across its face, 

 like a veil that adds to a woman's 

 beauty by only half revealing it. You 

 are standing on the edge of a tiny 

 lake, on the opposite shore of which, 

 darkened woods stretch away into the 

 distant mountain shadows. Soon, the 

 sky clears, the veil has disappeared and 



