106 FIVE DAYS ON MOUNT MANSFIELD. 



the highest angel be as far above the lowest 

 man? And yet (how mysteriously sugges- 

 tive would the fact be, if only it were new 

 to us!) this same light-winged Aphrodite, 

 flitting from blossom to blossom in the moun- 

 tain breeze, was but a few days ago an ugly, 

 crawling thing, close cousin to the borer. 

 Since then it has fallen asleep and been 

 changed, a parable, past all doubt, though 

 as yet we lack eyes to read it. 



I have spoken hitherto as if I were the 

 only sojourner at the summit, but there was 

 another man, though I seldom saw him; a 

 kind of hermit, living in a little shanty 

 under the lee of the Nose. Almost as a 

 matter of course he was reputed to be of 

 good family and to read Greek, and the fact 

 that he now and then received a bank draft 

 evidently gave him a respectable standing 

 in the eye of the hotel clerk. Something 

 something of a very romantic nature, we 

 may be sure had driven him away from 

 the companionship of his fellows, but he 

 still found it convenient to be within reach 

 of human society. Like all such solitaries, 

 he had some half -insane notions. He could 

 not sleep indoors, not for a night; it would 



