CHOCORUA. 209 



meshes and reaching on to the invisible sea, were 

 thousands of acres of green marsh dotted with 

 haystacks, or the round groups of piles from 

 which the stacked hay had been removed. The 

 most distant stacks looked no larger than thim- 

 bles, and were dim in the fast falling rain. As 

 the train sped over the marshes these distant hay- 

 cocks seemed to move as little as the sun would 

 have, had it been hurrying on that far line of 

 sky, while the near ones swung swiftly past, and 

 those intermediate went with them, yet more 

 slowly. The marsh seemed like a great wheel 

 revolving beside us, its lines of haycocks being 

 the innumerable spokes forever whirling past. 



The rain pelted the Piscataqua at Portsmouth, 

 and almost hid the great ship-houses at the Kit- 

 tery Navy Yard. It was beating upon Milton 

 ponds as the train rolled past them, and it was 

 swelling the flood of Bearcamp water as we 

 gained Ossipee valley. Of course no mountains 

 were to be seen. They were hidden in the roll- 

 ing masses of vapor which filled the upper air. 

 Towards them, however, and into their midst we 

 continued our journey by stage. The trees were 

 dripping with rain, patches of mist trailed west- 

 ward over the hill-tops, the bushes and flowers 

 by the roadside glistened with moisture. In 

 places the air was heavy with the spicy breath 

 of the choke-cherry, whose multitudes of finger- 



