The freshened air was fragrant, and how the crickets were chirring
in the grass! On every spear the dew was a-glimmer, for a lustrous
moon shone from the sky. Somehow, despite the long roads of light
that this splendid pioneer blazed out in the wilderness, it seemed
only to reveal the loneliness of the forests, and to give new
meaning to the solemnity of the shadows. The heart was astir with
some responsive thrill that jarred vaguely, and was pain. Yet the
night had its melancholy fascination, and they were all awake later
than usual. When at last the doors were barred, and the house grew
still, and even the vigilant Towse had ceased to bay and had lodged
himself under the floor of the passage, the moon still shone in
isolated effulgence, for the faint stars faded before it.

The knowledge that in all the vast stretch of mountain fastnesses he
was the only human creature that beheld it, as it majestically
crossed the meridian, gave Andy Byers a forlorn feeling, while
tramping along homeward. He had made the journey afoot, some eight
miles down the valley, and was later far in returning than others
who had heeded the summons of the sick woman. For she still lay in
the same critical condition, and his mind was full of dismal
forebodings as he toiled along the road on the mountain's brow. The
dark woods were veined with shimmering silver. The mists, hovering
here and there, showed now a blue and now an amber gleam as the
moon's rays conjured them. On one side of the road an oak tree had
been uptorn in a wind-storm; the roots, carrying a great mass of
earth with them, were thrust high in the air, while the bole and
leafless branches lay prone along the ground. This served as a
break in the density of the forest, and the white moonshine
possessed the vacant space.