34 JUNE IN FRANC ON I A. 



in any more narrowly circumscribed scene, 

 no matter how romantic. 



In venturing upon a comparison of this 

 kind, however, one is bound always to allow 

 for differences of mood. When I am in 

 tune for such things, I can be happier on an 

 ordinary Massachusetts hilltop than at an- 

 other time I should be on any New Hamp- 

 shire mountain, though it were Moosilauke 

 itself. And, truly, Fortune did smile upon 

 our first visit to Mount Cannon. Weather 

 conditions, outward and inward, were right. 

 We had come mainly to look at Lafayette 

 from this point of vantage; but, while we 

 suffered no disappointment in that direc- 

 tion, we found ourselves still more taken 

 with the valley prospect. We lay upon the 

 rocks by the hour, gazing at it. Scattered 

 clouds dappled the whole vast landscape with 

 shadows ; the river, winding down the mid- 

 dle of the scene, drew the whole into har- 

 mony, as it were, making it in some nobly 

 literal sense picturesque ; while the distance 

 was of such an exquisite blue as I think I 

 never saw before. 



How good life is at its best ! And in 

 such 



