AUTUMN 7 



small specimen between Franconia and the 

 Profile House, so close upon the highway 

 that the road-menders are continually cut- 

 ting it back, or the one on the Bethlehem 

 road, or the great cluster of stems on Wal- 

 lace Hill, it will always be Ms willow. 



And indeed this whole beautiful hill coun- 

 try is his. How happy he was in it ! I used 

 sometimes to talk to him about the glories 

 of our Southern mountains, — Tennessee, 

 North Carolina, Virginia ; but he was never 

 to be enticed away even in thought. "I 

 think I shall never go out of New England 

 again," he would answer, with a smile ; and 

 he never did, though in his youth he had 

 traveled more widely than I am ever likely 

 to do. The very roadsides here must miss 

 him, and wonder why he no longer passes, 

 with his botanical box slung over his shoul- 

 der and an opera-glass in his hand, — equally 

 ready for a plant or a bu^d. He was always 

 looking for something, and always finding it. 

 With his happiness, his goodness, his gentle 

 dignity, his philosoi^hic temper, his know- 

 ledge of his own mind, his love of all things 

 beautiful, he has made Franconia a dear 

 place for all of us who knew him here. 



