The San Francisco call., 1897-04-04

ABhEE0 as mopeSI, snrlnklng mower,
AE:!N loving deep, woodsy places and
secluded corners. This, certainly, is the
idea that the word violet brings TO most
minds. Yet, day or t~o ago, on the
chill top OF a wird-swept mountain, where
a scant inch of soil covers the disinte-
grating volcanic rock, 1 came upon such
a field of yellow vlolets as l have never
seen elsewhere. Fully an acre of the
sparse soil is covered with the tiny, close
smuggling plants. and the jolly, yellow
flowers, that look very like small, lost
pansies, are already nodding in the winds
that seem never wholly still on that bleak,
bare height.
was quite lost when I came upon the
blossoms. and had been wandering for
three hours or more over the hills in the
endeavor to find a feasible trail back to
familiar haunts. All around me lay huge,
round, smooth, black powders. lichen
patched, moss s-grown, polished here anu
there by wind and weather. There was q
certain fantastic method in their arrange
ment Some OF them see % ed to have been
arrested b. an unknown power in the
very act of rolling away down the hillside.
1t was hard TO believe they were not held
grevitation.
As wandered among them the convic-
tion grew upon me that they were not
powders at all, but the enchanted army of
the old Ara bian Nights story. Ihad come
by chance upon the magic hill, and pres
emily l encountered the golden enchanter
himself; for what but an enchanter could
be the great wind-tossed oak, In the brave
yellow of early foliage-the only sylvan
dwe.ler on all that mountain-top? Straight
out from mighty gray rock it sprang,
and in it's growth it had split the stony
mass asunder. l could see its gnarly
black roots thrusting here and there in the
cTevices, but | could not see that any of
them, piercing downward through the
rocky pile found earth and moisture.
Yet there the tree stood, with its back to
the wind, its shoulders braced, its head
bent and all its wide branches stretching
out like arms toward the enchanted princes
and their followers. Suppose some one
were to cut that tree down, would the spell
cease, do you think, and let the powders,
restored 10 life. go galloping down the
hill on their fiery steeds to release the
princess from durance vile? That were a
fine sight could one be there to behold it!
But l saw no lifting of enchantment.
saw only the little yellow violets, grow
ing bravely about the powders and even
playing at the very feet of the enchan ter
himself, and at the sight all my loneliness
sped away. The wee plants gave me cour.
age and strength. There's no being lost
In such company.
How the wind blewl 1t seemed as if
lr-r Ia.
an anchor 10 keep 1t in the ground. One
could see even the great oak shiver now
and then in the blast. 1t was interesting
to note the growths upon the hilltop.
Even the weeds were as short as though
cropped close. The buttercups blossomad
upon stems not more than an inch or two
long. The altileria spread out in rosettes,
lying close 10 the ground. and the grasses
were small and fine. Everything was
close-reefed, so to speak, and made snug
against the beating winds.
1t seemed strange to see the little brown
fycatchers up here, yet several were toss
ing about in the wind, and, seeing me,
darted beneath clump of stunted south
ernwood and lupin, where l could hear
them scolding as l worked getting some
roots of the vIolets for transpianting.
The ground was so stony could scarcely
get my trowel in. but the long white roots
of the plant crept in and out everywhere
among the broken rock. Far below me
two huge hawks suddenly left their perch
in dead tree and began wheeling up
ward until they passed within few feet
of my head. l caught the fash of the
bright, fierce eyes of one and noted that
as thew flew the birds turned THAR bea "A G
from side to side, surveying the scene be-
low.
1t was fascinating to watch them.