In another second we see that it is but the tamaracks burning like tall, yellow candles through the autumnal gloom, shedding their blessed gift of light to cheer us on our way.
When we gain the lower Quartz Lake, a deep green sheet of water bordered by wooded shores, the heavy clouds drag low and a rainbow arches the lake. We halt, uncertain, raising our eyes questioningly to the heights beyond that frown blackly through the tattered tapestry of the clouds. The mountains are angry! Very reluctantly, sorrowfully, we turn to retrace our steps, thinking of future seasons of sun and warmth and other quests of the sublime that shall end in triumph. At each gust the shearing wind despoils the silver poplars of their crowns until the naked branches leap wildly in a fantastic dance of death.
The changeling season, the faery-child of Nature has fled as mysteriously as it came—fled like a flock of yellow butterflies into some ethereal region to await its perennial resurrection. Dull Autumn settles drab as a moth upon the saddened world and the light has died from the mountains.
[Transcriber's Notes:]
Simple typographical errors were corrected.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
This book uses both "leggins" and "leggings".
Reference to page 90 in the [List of Illustrations] should be to page 116.
[Page 206]: "complete, In Maximilian's" is printed with a comma in the book and unchanged here.