Let us rest on our oars a moment, here in the bay, to view the scenery
around us, as seen by the mellow moonlight. So calm, so still, so
motionless are both air and water, that we seem suspended between the
sky above, sparkling and glowing with millions of bright stars, and
the moon riding gloriously on her course, and a sky beneath, sparkling
and glowing with like millions of bright stars, and the same moon, or
its counterpart, floating away down in fathomless depths below us.
See, how the same hillside, the same line of forest trees, the same
ranges and mountain peaks are reflected back from the stirless bosom
of the lake. There, above, and just on the upper line of that tall
peak, looming darkly and majestically in the distance, hangs a
brilliant star, sparkling and twinkling, like the sheen of a diamond;
and right beneath, away down just as far below the surface of the
water as mountain peak and star are above it, is another mountain peak
and bright star, twinned by the mirrored waters. See, away down the
lake, that little island with its half dozen spruce trees, clustered
together! How like a great war vessel it looks, with sails all set, as
seen by the uncertain light of the moon. And that other island, off to
the left, with the dead and barkless trees, how like a tall ship with
bare masts riding at anchor it seems. That other island, away to the
right, with its great boulders and bare rocks rising straight up out
of the water, is a fortification, a stronghold surrounded by a wall of
solid masonry, and bristling with cannon. We can almost see the
sentinel, and hear his measured tramp as he travels his lonely rounds,
keeping watch out over the waters. See all along the shore, as you
look up the bay towards the Lake House, how the millions of fireflies
flash their tiny torches, upward and downward, this way and that,
mingling and crossing, and gyrating and whirling--a troubled and
billowy sea of millions upon millions of glowing and sparkling gems.