rolling away they revealed the mountains piled in grand clusters, or stretching farther and farther, ridge over ridge, until their undulating lines were lost in the blue sky. Nay, if truth be told, many a finny prowler escaped the fate due to his murderous appetite, because the thoughts of the angler were wandering in delicious day-dreams, or aspiring gratefully to God, who has made our way to heaven lie through a world so beautiful. The sultry noon found them under the shadow of spreading birch trees, near a spring of icy coldness, where, after a rude but welcome meal, they were wont to recline on a bank carpeted by blossoming strawberry-vines, with the low dash of the rippling wave in their ear. Then it was that stories of the morning sport, innocuous jests, and, not seldom, grave yet pleasant discourse, sped the moments to the cooler hours when the boats were manned again, and they parted until the shadows fell: then another chat over the fragrant "cup that cheers, but not inebriates," and to sleep soundly and sweetly till the sun roused them to renewed gratifications. News of political strife, pressures in the money-market, or foreign wars, never penetrated those pure, peaceful solitudes. The nearest post-office was many miles away across the mountains, and tidings only of the beloved ones at home were allowed to come.
Those days are gone by, and the cheer of those friends will never be heard over those waters again. One, the most revered of all, sleeps in a holy grave, and his memory fades not in the hearts of his comrades; in other haunts of wild nature they greet each other with unabated affection; but for them Piseco is a word of memory, not of hope.
The Sabbath there had peculiar charms. No church-going bell rang through the woods, no decorated temple lifted its spire; but the hush of divine rest was upon all around, a sense of the Holy One rested on the spirit, the birds sang more sweetly, the dews of the morning shimmered more brightly, and the sounds of the forest were like the voice of psalms. As the day went on toward noon, the inhabitants, whose dwellings were scattered for miles around, some down the rocky paths, others in boats on the lake, singly or in companies, men, women, and little ones, might be seen
