A PERFECT NOOK. 9 



as though preparing for mountains. Before 

 long they retreated to a distance and grew big- 

 ger, and at last, far off, appeared the mountains, 

 overtopping all one great white peak, the 



" Giver of gold, king of eternal hills." 



A welcome awaited me in the summer home 

 of a friend at Colorado Springs, in the pres- 

 ence of the great Cheyenne Range, with the 

 snow-cap of Pike's Peak ever before me. Four 

 delightful days I gave to friendship, and then I 

 sought and found a perfect nook for rest and 

 study, in a cottonwood grove on the banks of 

 the Minnelowan (or Shining Water). This is a 

 mad Colorado stream which is formed by the 

 junction of the North and South Cheyenne 

 Canon brooks, and comes tumbling down from 

 the Cheyenne, rushing and roaring as if it had 

 the business of the world on its shoulders, and 

 must do it man-fashion, with confusion and 

 noise enough to drown all other sounds. 



Imagine a pretty, one-story cottage, set down 

 in a grove of cottonwood-trees, with a gnarly 

 oak and a tall pine here and there, to give it 

 character, and surrounded as a hen by her 

 chickens, by tents, six or eight in every con- 

 ceivable position, and at every possible angle 

 except a right angle. Add to this picture the 

 sweet voices of birds, and the music of water 

 rushing and hurrying over the stones ; let your 



