Toward Cape Breton 
the distance their shapes are lost, and their dark 
green makes black masses like deep shadows in 
the midst of the lighter foliage. 
We left the mountains only to find them 
again a little farther on. The near farmhouses 
looked pretty and comfortable, and there was 
an occasional apple-tree bearing very small 
apples, as though it knew what was expected 
of it, and would fulfil its duty as best it could, 
though its hard-borne fruit was " apple " in 
form only. 
And then, beyond the mountains, up against 
the sky, lay distant blue highlands like a dream 
in their loveliness. 
Nearer to the mountain sped the train, until 
we found ourselves climbing the side of it and 
looking across the mist-filled valleys of another 
mountain, its sides all sheep-coloured or clothed 
with fir-trees. 
We hastened through a continually chang- 
ing hill country that raised high our hopes of 
Cape Breton, for the landscape grew more in- 
teresting as we went on. 
We left the mountains, and the country 
settled into a rounded hilliness, always agree- 
able and always covered with the soft green 
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