The Van Buren press., 1898-12-03
2 =
4 Che story Of Va!ley Sbut.1n.
Y Where the Ruins of Desolate Cottage
y Rest on the Spot of Happy Home.
II:
n1uE Valley shut-In is secluded from

TuE Valley Shut-In is secluded from
eioht or sound of men, for it is hid
~ among wooded hills in the widest,
most inaccessible part of the Areadian
,,,onntains. It's charm is unknown to
many, and only score or more of aged
men and women give fieeting thought
% the homes of their childhood in Val
Low sbut-In. No one ever visits the lone
v spot but those who till the meagcr
soil and no one views the ruins of
Desolate Cottage, once Happy Home,
sbat lie therein.
Flowing through the Valley Shut-In
Ia n shallow river that gurgles plain
lively through a wilderness of forest;
mn unknown stretch of river, for it turns
abruptly away from the valley road and
noisier smaller tributary two miles
or more away; turns at such an obtuse
angle. hid with trees, that few travellers
notice where it leaves them, and Won
der later where the river turned its
flood another way: but we who love the
shallow stream always watch for the
turning, and when we view it our fancy
travels wishfully along that unknown
path. impossible, they say, except in
4be driest season, and we wonder
where the turnings, where the deep,
dark pools and glancing shadows,
what the flowers and birds along its
winding way.
But ere long it reaches the Valley
shut-In and energies again, unsad-
dened by the loneliness there, to ripple
down through many forest and
meadow to the greater river and the
sea.
On either side of the river the hills
frown down upon it, and the trees on
either side bend lovingly down to drink
of its flood, and so no one on the hill
side sees the stream, only listens to its
drowsy murmur in the summer days
or louder, wilder song when its wa
ters come plunging down.
On the eastern side of the valley the
trees crowd thicl<ly up the hillside, and
on the other alternate with brown pas
ture land and rugged lodges.
One reaches Valley Shut-In from this
western side through a forest where
rare ferns grow and orchids hide and
no one finds them, through wild wood
road that is lined with the flowers that
nature loves, and is carpeted with moss
and sweet-smelling chips, dropped here
from the winter shedding; path tray-
eled oftenest by timid denizens of the
forest and things that creep and crawl
IN lowly ways.
We leave the path moment just be-
fore it dips steeply down the hill to-
ward Desolate Cottage, once the road
to Happy Home, leave the path and fol-
low ledge that lies at right angles
with it, and creeping under the under
brush little way suddenly find our
selves standing on the brink of preci
pice where giant trees growing at its
base GO feet below rest their topmost
leafy branches gently on the rocks
above.
Below us are yawning cracks where
great slabs of rocks threaten to fall
away, and then in places are narrow,
gloomy caves, and an echo that living
here guards all living things and tells
them in many reverberating, oft-re-
peating voices when a human being
or rruder spirit stands in natures home.
Many years ago some fortune hunter
quarried in the ledge, and the ragged
aperture thus made frowns in its side,
tnOnph tie ftAr,.,, ,n 81, ltIIo,,
the filmy lace of vines that creep low
ingly across its furrowed checks and
the delicate rock ferns that have found
foothold in its wrinkles, and close
by fragment yet unbroken by geolo-
gist's hammer fingers to tell the story,
For some strange freak on natures
part filled the ledge with streaks of
teldspar, in the coarser granite rock,
and In places flung bright bits of mica
IN, and In others crowded it with crys-
tails OF green tourmaline, brittle, yet
ahta1zing, as they protrude their
pentagonal sides from the lighter
rocks, and then again a vein of smoky
OF yellow quartz peers out from the
stone.
Below the ledge, out from under the
trees and the guarding echo, we stand
IN pasture where blackberry bushes
ana brambles grow at our feet, and
there we look across the abandoned
apple orchard with Desolate Cottage
Standing forlornly there, across a mead
ow That slants to the rivers side, across
the path of the river betrayed by the
trees, to the wooded hills that rise to
me sky that sinks behind them and
SHUTS out the world beyond.
lhe shingles of Desolate Cottage are
covered with the moss Of many years
out now even the moss finds no WOOD
beneath 1t and slowly falls away
Inc bricks of Its chimney were long
ago built into the walls of another
nome The door stone is sunk in the
grass and hid by a tangle of wild
rose and burdock that quarrel and
are friends again.
Inc hoors are bending and sagginf
downward with the rotten sleepers, A
-e" DIS OF plaster, green with years;
ie" bits CT wall paper discolorec
past all resemblance to what it once
was cling to the walls. The frames
VI the windows and the glass that
was IN them are long fallen away
sha driven in by the valley winds the
.eaTes OF last years spring rustic and
,lollc In the tenantless rooms. In the
,oW-roofed kitchen a great brick over
sa"ns beside the vacant chimney
p'acei and all else that remains tC