220 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



their only refuge against rains and wintry blasts, the 

 only places they could call home till the day of " great 

 deliverance " should dawn and another path be shown 

 -them whereby they could win their way to those snowy 

 hills without fear or fatal falling from the law. Now, 

 as then, such renunciations are being enacted among 

 the dark places of the earth; for their own or others' 

 sins, pilgrims within sight of their long-sought goal 

 must turn away, and on stony altars wet with blood- 

 like tears, offer sad sacrifices, sanctified by self-devotion, 

 solemnised by the simple faith that commands them. 



In spite of its untoward commencement, this had 

 been a " day of days," my last one among the hills, and 

 the night was hardly less beautiful. Softly the stars 

 twinkled, and then their light was wiped out by the 

 greater radiance of the moon, a moon that, peering first 

 between the dark pine stems, gave cheery greeting to all 

 who had sense to remain awake to fete it. With the flap 

 of my little tent wide open I watched her playing hide 

 and seek in the forest, then, mounting to her throne in 

 the open heaven, saw her shine in dignified solitude, 

 flooding the open nierg with a glittering sheen, which 

 outlined even tiny flowers into an unreal relief. The 

 stream below the camp, swollen by the late rains, made 

 a companionable sound, and the grazing ponies seemed 

 pleasant fellows. All living things and trilling brooks 

 and whispering pines were alive that night. Boon 

 companions were flowers and trees, rushing waters, 

 chill snows, and melting ice, the grazing herds and tiny 

 insects being all partners in a great festive confederacy, 

 smiled on by the moon, encouraged by the cheery, saucy 

 " lesser lights," who were quite ready to take again their 

 places and illuminate the world when she had set. 



