My First Summer 



Through a meadow opening in the pine 

 woods I see snowy peaks about the head- 

 waters of the Merced above Yosemite. How 

 near they seem and how clear their outlines 

 on the blue air, or rather in the blue air ; for 

 they seem to be saturated with it. How con- 

 suming strong the invitation they extend! 

 Shall I be allowed to go to them ? Night and 

 day I '11 pray that I may, but it seems too 

 good to be true. Some one worthy will go, 

 able for the Godful work, yet as far as I 

 can I must drift about these love-monument 

 mountains, glad to be a servant of servants 

 in so holy a wilderness. 



Found a lovely lily (Calochortus albus} in 

 a shady adenostoma thicket near Coulter- 

 ville, in company with Adiantum Chilense. 

 It is white with a faint purplish tinge in- 

 side at the base of the petals, a most im- 

 pressive plant, pure as a snow crystal, one of 

 the plant saints that all must love and be 

 made so much the purer by it every time 

 it is seen. It puts the roughest mountaineer 



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