The Yosemite Waters. 



309 



They have carved the mountains, these soft caressing 

 fingers of falHng waters, these deHcate foamy touches on 

 the stubborn rock. 



They have carved the mountains and cut them through 

 with gorges, and adorned them with rich embroideries 

 of green. For them El Capitan rears his snow-white 

 head to the sun; for them Dome and Half-dome pillar 

 the sky. For them the great sequoias gather the years 

 together on the valley floor and shake their lofty heads 

 at time. For them the pink azaleas pattern the woods 

 in June and all the little mountain flowers dip their 

 brows in dew. 



Beautiful as love in its hope is the beauty of falling 

 waters; strong as love in its triumph is their strength. 

 They wait and sparkle and are still — as light as thistle- 

 down, as soft as air. They gather the plumes of an 

 hundred battles, they sweep on with the passion of peo- 

 pled worlds. And Hfe is a bubble in the foam of them; 

 it shall burst in the sun and vanish, and the beauty of 

 falling waters shall reck not that it is gone. 



Yosemite Valley, July 4, 1904. 



