136 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



about me, now that all was quiet, and made 

 cheer. After sundown I built a great fire, and 

 as usual had it all to myself. And though lone- 

 some for the first time in these forests, I quickly 

 took heart again, — the trees had not gone to 

 Boston, nor the birds ; and as I sat by the fire, 

 Emerson was still with me in spirit, though I 

 never again saw him in the flesh. He sent books 

 and wrote, cheering me on ; advised me not to 

 stay too long in solitude. Soon he hoped that 

 my guardian angel would intimate that my pro- 

 bation was at a close. Then I was to roll up my 

 herbariums, sketches, and poems (though I never 

 knew I had any poems), and come to his house ; 

 and when I tired of him and his humble sur- 

 roundings, he would show me to better people. 



But there remained many a forest to wander 

 through, many a mountain and glacier to cross, 

 before I was to see his Wachusett and Monad- 

 nock, Boston and Concord. It was seventeen 

 years after our parting on the Wawona ridge 

 that I stood beside his grave under a pine tree 

 on the hill above Sleepy Hollow. He had gone 

 to higher Sierras, and, as I fancied, was again 

 waving his hand in friendly recognition. 



