In the Sierra 



up and die, and in God's calendar difference 

 of duration is nothing. We can only dream 

 about them in wondering, worshiping admi- 

 ration, happier than we dare tell even to 

 friends who see farthest in sympathy, glad to 

 know that not a crystal or vapor particle of 

 them, hard or soft, is lost; that they sink and 

 vanish only to rise again and again in higher 

 and higher beauty. As to our own work, duty, 

 influence, etc., concerning which so much 

 fussy pother is made, it will not fail of its 

 due effect, though, like a lichen on a stone, 

 we keep silent. 



July 24. Clouds at noon occupying 

 about half the sky gave half an hour of heavy 

 rain to wash one of the cleanest landscapes in 

 the world. How well it is washed ! The sea 

 is hardly less dusty than the ice-burnished 

 pavements and ridges, domes and canons, 

 and summit peaks plashed with snow like 

 waves with foam. How fresh the woods are 

 and calm after the last films of clouds have 

 been wiped from the sky! A few minutes 



