356 1 GO A-FISHING. 



than I had been by the ascent of the mountain. Up above 

 us, between the tree-tops, was a narrow line of sky, sprin- 

 kled with bright stars, that shone as you have sometimes 

 seen them on a winter night. 



While we sat there a soft breeze from the south began 

 to steal up the valley, and then, borne on the gentle air, 

 I heard from far below the sound of the river vexed 

 among rocks, and dashing down heavy falls, but the 

 sound was not angry ; it was musical and mournful ; it 

 was the sound of mingled praise and prayer in some dis- 

 tant place of worship, as I have heard the great organ at 

 Freiburg, when late at night I have been standing on the 

 bridge over the chasm. 



The horses were not waiting for us, though we were a 

 half- hour beyond the appointed time. As we learned 

 afterward, the boy who had been sent with them waited 

 in the lonesome road until, in the gloom, the trunks of 

 trees began to look like men, bushes became ghosts, 

 stumps seemed to him wild beasts, and the darkness 

 frightened him. So the poor little fellow, after resisting 

 the terror that crept over him as long as he could, yielded 

 at last, and drove home as fast as the horses would drag 

 him. We had nothing to do but to foot it. It was no 

 wonder the boy was frightened in that deep valley. As 

 we walked up the road we several times saw groups of 

 men ahead of us, which wholly vanished as we approached 

 them. Once I saw a horse standing by the road-side, and 

 Dupont saw it too, and we hurried on, thinking to find 

 old Jack and the wagon, but there was no horse there ; 

 only trunks of trees, and the starlight creeping through 

 and around them. 



Again we sat down for awhile on a great rock by the 

 road-side, and listened, if we might perhaps hear the 



