Down North and Up Along 
us were grown over by blueberry bushes with 
reddened leaves and lavish abundance of ripe 
fruit ; while the round-leaved, aromatic winter- 
green of our childhood deeply carpeted the 
wayside. Heavy growths of ferns and brakes 
filled the hollows. We went slowly, even more 
slowly than the rising grade demanded, often 
stopping to enjoy the wildness and the sweet- 
ness of the way. As we went on, the expand- 
ing views and the greater depths into which we 
looked told us we were nearing the top. 
No perils of the way had been encountered 
until of a sudden we came upon a ledge where 
were realised our hopes of Smoky and almost 
our fears. On our left rose the wall of the 
mountain, while between that and the deep 
descent to the sea was the ledge upon which 
the road had been built. It was a good 
enough road now, buttressed by heavy planks 
and widened by broken stone, but it was easy 
to see how in other times it had been a slant- 
ing and dangerous trail where the traveller 
might have met with disaster. The view was 
of the sea over the tree-tops that grew on the 
lower slopes. It was a lofty perch, from which 
the sails looked like white dots on the water. 
232 
