My First Summer 



June 13. Another glorious Sierra day 

 in which one seems to be dissolved and ab- 

 sorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not 

 where. Life seems neither long nor short, 

 and we take no more heed to save time or 

 make haste than do the trees and stars. This 

 is true freedom, a good practical sort of im- 

 mortality. Yonder rises another white sky- 

 land. How sharply the yellow pine spires 

 and the palm-like crowns of the sugar pines 

 are outlined on its smooth white domes. And 

 hark! the grand thunder billows booming, 

 rolling from ridge to ridge, followed by the 

 faithful shower. 



A good many herbaceous plants come thus 

 far up the mountains from the plains, and are 

 now in flower, two months later than their 

 lowland relatives. Saw a few columbines to- 

 day. Most of the ferns are in their prime, - 

 rock ferns on the sunny hillsides, cheilanthes, 

 pellaea, gymnogramme; woodwardia, aspi- 

 dium, woodsia along the stream banks, and 

 the common Pteris aquilina on sandy flats. 



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