seemed as though that had never been sung before), and "The Star-spangled Banner," and " Blow ye the Trumpet, blow!" and tenderer airs, such as "Tenting on the Old Camp-ground," and "A Charge to keep I have." They all melted together, and we agreed that when the coming camp-meeting is held in these old woods, this chapel in the garden will be a choice resort for the happy minstrels of those happy convocations.
The choicest walk, after all, is by moonlight. It is familiar to say,
"If you would see Melrose aright,
Go visit it by pale moonlight."
This far larger and costlier abbey, and situated more romantically, deserves like visitation. The flood of silver raining from that mine in the sky—an appropriate figure for this silver country—poured over all the patios and azateas, or flat roofs, on the porcelain-tiled domes, into the gardens, everywhere but into the still roofed corridors and shut cells. They looked all the blacker and more fearful for the contrast. We climb to the belfry, and let the sound of our own music creep into our ears, while we also send out over the valleys and woodlands a cheerful summons to the robber serenaders, that may make us sing another song before morning. We sit on the flat roofs, with their slightly raised battlements, and continue our talk and song till the hour grows late, and the air slightly chill, for this is nine thousand feet above New York, and the midnight February air is not quite as warm as her midnight air of August.
All this vivacity was assumed. We may as well own it: we were really scared. The gentleman who conducted us, of undoubted personal courage, felt some fears for the ladies in his care. Of the two men with him, one made no pretense as a marksman, and had not even put a revolver in his belt. We prepare for the night by barring heavily the outer door of the ruin and inner doors of our apartments, as well as the shutters to their classless windows. A fire is burning on the unused hearth, whose light is companionable and comforting. The ladies lie undressed on a couch before
