An Arizonan Hill-side. 177 



clustered about you ? It is well to be passive 

 rather than active when among them, and accept 

 what they offer rather than be importunate. One 

 can seldom anticipate their lesson of the day, but 

 it is never one not worth the learning. When I 

 gazed at their wrinkled fronts, deaf to the birds and 

 blind to the flowers about me, the initial thought 

 was that of their unchangeableness. Nature is 

 here at rest, if anywhere. Peak after peak, ridge 

 beyond ridge, valley after valley ; a troubled ocean, 

 motionless. But such a thought was scarcely 

 crystallized before it dissolved. A cloud passed 

 betwixt the sun and the hills, and every one was 

 set in motion. What mighty magic lurked in that 

 single shadow ! As well, now, try to catch the 

 contour of a troubled wave as single out one of 

 the hundred hills before me. What but the mo- 

 ment before typified eternal rest was now the 

 embodiment of the poetry of motion. Such mas- 

 sive clouds, hung in so blue a sky, and casting 

 such shadows, are common to few places, and 

 here their glory is supreme. It is little wonder, 

 then, that the mountains were thrilled by that 

 shadow's gentle touch. 



