The age-herald., 1900-08-12

blest music yet heard. in earthly cathe- dral; and borne upon every ripping or slumberous wave of music is the perfume of uncounted millions of flowers abloom in uncounted millions of spots blessed of Heaven Thus is the Happy Valley far from the towns turmoil in the August af- | ternoon.
 | Quitting the Happy Valley when it spark i led with enough of dew diamonds to gem a diadem for all the earth, the ascent Of the mountain was begun in gladness. The
 way wound amongst the mighty trees of the primeval wood, over many a stone, by ,, many a steep, across many streamiet
 scant and by the rioting torrents side, yet
 ever ascending toward the summit of the toilsome way and the summit of the ever lasting mountain builded a thousand cen- turies, and robbed with the green of hun dred thousand summers and gloried by | millions of August afternoons, yet not one of them all so glorious and so glad as this one now coming over the mountain. Once | in while there was a brief space of rest, | and itful glimpses of blue valley beloved | and blue beyond endless, seen through screens of green.
 The top of the mountain reached in a great wood, the way turned to the South, I and still it wound and wound in amongst the trees, ever winding in the great trees silent sentinels standing at attention as the happy intruders laughed by with heads
 uncovered. Gentle winds came out of the sky, which seemed to rest upon the top- l most branches of the ancient trees, and stirred the leaves, swayed the vines, and soothed the glad wanderers there.
 Afterwhile, wondrous, unspeakably splen- did afterwhile, came quickly, and in it the glad holiday-makers stood upon a great | rocky ledge that seemed to have been
 thrown there by some Titan of ancient days to serve as a. watchman for the watchers from the valley. Far down the
 mighty mass of green formed by the tops of the primeval trees lay Happy Valley, glowing in softened brillance mile on mile between the guardian mountains Either end of the valley was lost in misty blue,
 as if rain of azure were falling softly to
 make splendidly resplendent the abode of
 of peace and content. Far fair valley, with | its wide reaches of greens, it's homes, it's human hearts with human hopes Beyond
  l for beyond its heights spread a still wider 1 valley with homes and hearts and hopes,
 and beyond that yet another mountain was uplfted as a wall of emerald; and far be- ycnd were still higher heights blue as the heavens, and of all-supassing spendor! Thus was created scene, with Happy
 Valley as the center, of most splendid, in-
 spring and inspiriting glory-unsurpassed
 and unsurpassable in all the earth of hill
 and dell, mountain and valley, lakes of translucent deeps and streams murmuring
 their way to the murmuring sea.
 | The way still wound in and wound in, l ever winding in amongst the great trees | of the vast spaces of the illimitable green | forest upon the endless sweep of mountain | top. Weird and wondrous vistas opened to the right and the left and before, haunts of unseen forms that fill the forest with
 mystery and spirit of awe. In a soon- coming afterwhile all the vistGs of all the wood appeared to open on a higher wood ed ground, beyond which foamed and roared, rushed and thundered a cataract
 that was bright silvern in the sunlight Of August. This falling laughing-water
 seemed to have been placed there by di-
 vine design to make the mountain forest
 divine in its glory and its splendor It made the anthem music in Gods first tem- pie, the tree-guarded consecrated ground
 of the ages. It was the mighty organ
 whose power was eternal and whose notes
 were harmony sublime. In it's presence in that Presence-the worshipers threw themselves upon the green grass and were happy.
 Two hundred and fifty years before upon that same spot of earth, d famed warrior of old Spain, guarded by his brave Castilians, had pitched his tent, be- 1ieving that, after all his wanderings and journeyings, his combats and his tolls, he
 had come at last to the dream haunted, hope-created Fl Dorado of new world,
 Through many a dawn, many noon
 many a twilight many a night, he had
 abided there, searching and hoping, and | hoping and searching, for that substance bright and yellow, hard and cold, for
 which countless generations of men have bartered their souls and cursed the earth with nameless woes. The spell Of that
 long-gone sojourn of the Castlians was| still upon the place. But vain hopes of vain De Soto, he never knew hour of joy akin to that which came to the worshpers