"No," replied that lady, who prided herself on a delicate appetite, "I
never am hungry; dew and flowers, my friends used to say, were
intended to support sensitive nerves like mine."

"Very likely," thought Enoch Sharp; "I am certain no human being could
support them," but he drowned this ungallant thought in a loud call
for Ralph to drive on.

The horses made a leap forward, swept round a huge rock that concealed
the highway where it curved suddenly with a bend of the river, and
before them lay one of the most beautiful mountain villages you ever
beheld. The horses knew their old home. Away they went sweeping up the
broad winding sheet between double columns of young maple trees,
through which the white houses gleamed tranquilly and dream-like on
the eyes of those city children.




CHAPTER XXVI

A VALLEY IN THE MOUNTAINS.


High up among the emerald breasted hills,
There lay a village, cradled in their green.
Surrounded by such loveliness as thrills
The poetry within us--and the sheen
Of a broad river kissed the mountain's foot
Where stately hemlocks found primeval root.