Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-12-01
THE MIRACLE PLAY OF 1870, IN
BETHLEHEM, N. H.
Bf II. H.

| One does not need to 90 to Am
mergau. On night, not of appoint
ment beforehand, SO far as we knew
we went to sleep in Bethlehem, New
Hampshire. We were content, but
not expectant. Ranges of mount
aims, solid, blue, and stately, hedg
ing us round, yet leaving open fol
our untiring gaze SO wide circle
that at its outer rim, even in clear
est days, fingers purple haze; neal
helds of brown ferns, scarlet cornels
gray boulders frosted with myriad
hchens; woods, spicy and sheltered
with furs, soft under foot with un-
numbered MOSES and mats OF
Linaa, and rich in all sorts of forest
growths,of bush and shrub and low
Towering things: all this seemed
enough. We went to sleep, as l say,
content, but not expectant Of more
than We had had. We heard no
sound in the night. We made no
haste in the morning.
With the delicious leisureliness
which wraps solitary people in the
warm, autumn mountain weather,
we set ourselves to beginning the
day, and by chance looked out of
our window.
Like children at sight of merry
juggler's show, we first shouted with
delight, then drew in long, silent
breaths, with bewilderment too like
awe to find easy shape in speech. o
whence! o who! How had their feet
passedby so noIselessly? Who had
touched with this enchantment every
leaf of every tree which stood with
in our sight? Every maple tree
blazed at top with tint of scarlet or
cherry or orange or pale yellow.
Every ash tree had turned from
green to dark purple or to pale straw
color. Every birch tree shimmered
and quivered in the sun, as if gold
pieces were strung along it's branches
were fecked with
white; beeches were brown and vel
low; poplars were marked and
spotted with vermilion; sumachs had
become ladders, and bars, and
fringes of fire; not single tree was
left of solid dark green, except the
pines and the larches and the frs;
and they also seemed to have shared
in the transformation, looking dark
er and greener than ever, as setting
for these masses of flashing color.
Single trees in fields, near and far,
looked like great hewn jewels; with
light behind them, the tint flickered
and waved as it does in transparent
stones held up to the sun. When
the wind shook them, it was like
nothing but the tremulousness of
distant seas burning under sunset.
The same trees, filling in by tens of
thousands in spaces of the forests,
looked not like anything which aoe
know and name as gem, but as one
could fancy mid-air spaces might be
and look in some supernatural
realm whence the souls of ruby and
amethyst and topaz come and go,
taking for little while the dusty
shapes of small stones on earth.
All this in this one night! To
north, to south, to east, to west, it |
was the same. Scores of miles |
away, at the very feet of the farthest
green mountains, shone the glory;
within our hands reach, ut neigh
bors' gates stood the stately splen-
dor.
l have seen our Western prairies
in June Towering; 1 have seen also
the mosaic fields of blossoms in the
Ampezzo Pass, at which one cannot
so much as look without shaded
eyes, and from which Titan learnt
color; 1 have seen old altar fronts
On which generations and centuries
Of kings have lavished jewels, till
they are so thick set that not one
more dot can be added; but 1 have
never seen such flaming, shading,
shaping, changing, lavishing, riot
ng of color as in this death of the
autumn leaves on these Bethlehem
lills.-Atlantic Monthly.