BALD PEAKS AND GREEN VALES 59 



soon one recovers strength among these heights. How 

 bracing is the cool mountain air, if you breathe it 

 deeply ! As I began the descent, I whistled and sang, 

 — that is, I tried to. To be frank, it was all noise and 

 no music, but I must have some way of giving expres- 

 sion to the uplifted emotions that filled my breast. 

 Again and again I said to myself, " I 'm so glad ! I 'm 

 so glad ! I 'm so glad ! " It was gladness pure and 

 simple, — the dictionary has no other word to express 

 it. No pen can do justice to the panorama of moun- 

 tain and valley and plain as viewed from such a height 

 on a clear, crisp morning of June. One felt like ex- 

 claiming with George Herbert : 



" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. 

 The bridal of the earth and sky ! " 



So far as the aesthetic value of it went, I was monarch 

 of all I surveyed, even though mile on mile of grandeur 

 and glory was spread out before me. The quatrain of 

 Lowell recurred to mv mind : 



" 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 

 T is only God may be had for the asking ; 

 No price is set on the lavish summer ; 

 June may be had by poorest comer." 



Before leaving the Peak, I watched a flock of birds 

 eating from the waste-heap at the Summit House. They 

 were the brown-capped rosy finches, called scientifically 

 Leucostide australis. Their plumage was a rich choco- 



