Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great
size, but very steep; and having no trees--scarcely even a bush--
upon it, entirely exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my
way seemed to lie, and I immediately began the ascent. On
reaching the top, hot and weary, I looked around me, and saw that
the forest still stretched as far as the sight could reach on
every side of me. I observed that the trees, in the direction in
which I was about to descend, did not come so near the foot of
the hill as on the other side, and was especially regretting the
unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of the hill
seemed more difficult to descend than the other had been to
climb, when my eye caught the appearance of a natural path,
winding down through broken rocks and along the course of a tiny
stream, which I hoped would lead me more easily to the foot. I
tried it, and found the descent not at all laborious;
nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was very tired and
exhausted with the heat. But just where the path seemed to end,
rose a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping
plants, some of them in full and splendid blossom: these almost
concealed an opening in the rock, into which the path appeared to
lead. I entered, thirsting for the shade which it promised.
What was my delight to find a rocky cell, all the angles rounded
away with rich moss, and every ledge and projection crowded with
lovely ferns, the variety of whose forms, and groupings, and
shades wrought in me like a poem; for such a harmony could not
exist, except they all consented to some one end! A little well
of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow in one corner. I
drank, and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be;
then threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along
the inner end. Here I lay in a delicious reverie for some time;