hemlock, overhanging brooklets that came stealing like broken diamond
threads down the mountain sides to hide beneath their shadows, were
constantly appearing and disappearing along the road.

It was impossible for little Mary to sit still when these heavenly
glimpses presented themselves. Her cheeks burned, her eyes kindled;
her very limbs trembled with suppressed impatience; but she dared not
lean forward, and could only obtain tantalizing glances of the
sparkling brooks, and the soft, green mosses that clung around the
mountain cliffs where they shot over the road.

They passed through several villages, winding in and out through
mountain passes, where the hills were so interlapped that it seemed
impossible to guess how the carriage would extricate itself from the
green labyrinth.

Nothing could be more delicate and vivid than the foliage that clothed
the hill-sides, for the primeval growth of hemlocks had been cut away
from the hills, and a second crop of luxuriant young trees, beech,
oak, and maple, mottled with rich clusters of mountain ash, and the
deep green of white pines, covered the whole country.

All at once the coachman drew up his horses on a curve of the highway.
The carriage was completely buried in a valley along which wound the
river, whose sweet noise they had long heard among the trees.

"Now children, look out," said the Judge, laughing pleasantly; "look
out and tell me how we are to get through the hills."

Both the little girls sprang forward and looked abroad breathlessly,