

In the Sierra 



flowers waver above them in wonderful 

 profusion, and many other beautiful winged 

 people, numbered and known and loved 

 only by the Lord, are waltzing together 

 high over head, seemingly in pure play and 

 hilarious enjoyment of their little sparks 

 of life. How wonderful they are ! How do 

 they get a living, and endure the weather ? 

 How are their little bodies, with muscles, 

 nerves, organs, kept warm and jolly in such 

 admirable exuberant health ? Regarded only 

 as mechanical inventions, how wonderful 

 they are ! Compared with these, Godlike 

 man's greatest machines are as nothing. 



Most of the sandy gardens on moraines 

 are in prime beauty like the meadows, 

 though some on the north sides of rocks 

 and beneath groves of sapling pines have 

 not yet bloomed. On sunny sheets of crys- 

 tal soil along the slopes of the Hoffman 

 mountains, I saw extensive patches of ive- 

 sia and purple gilia with scarce a green leaf, 

 making fine clouds of color. Ribes bushes, 

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