244 VIRGINIA 



the players must have come from a consid- 

 erable distance, it seemed, as there was no 

 sign of a village or even of a hamlet, so far 

 as I had discovered, anywhere in the neigh- 

 borhood. The Bridge is not in any township, 

 but simply in Rockbridge County, after a Vir- 

 ginia custom quite foreign to a New Eng- 

 lander's notions of geographical propriety. 



The prospect from Mount Jefferson was 

 beautiful, as I have said, but on my return 

 I happened upon one that pleased me better. 

 I had been down through Cedar Creek ra- 

 vine, and had taken my own way out, up 

 the right-hand slope through the woods, 

 noting the flowers as I walked, especially 

 the blue-eyed grass and the scarlet catchfly 

 (battlefield pink), a marvelous bit of color, 

 and was following the edge of the cliff to- 

 ward the hotel, when, finding myself still 

 with time to spare, I sat down to rest and 

 be quiet. By accident I chose a spot where 

 between ragged, homely cedars I looked 

 straight down the glen over a stretch of 

 the brook far below to the bridge, through 

 which could be seen wooded hills backed by 

 Thunder Mountain, long and massive, just 

 now mostly in shadow, like the rest of the 



