The Alaskan., 1931-11-27
JUST A LITTLE
 MOUNTAIN TOWN By James R. Little

HA1AAO1IS O1IC uIGdiIlS G1idG CO1Ilc to me, is one that reveals the wish to go away to some little mountain town" where is salt water, pine and spruce trees, and virgin green ferns. It is a sort Of wish dear friend! We are giv- Cn in wishing when we Sour coughs, know Alaska as she is. When our wishes are not for wealth, nor renown, nor for 2ught so nconsiderable as these, but are for happiness and health and the zeSt of living. The win ter wishes, down here in the city, are, you must surely know, vain and fretful. They are tinctured all with a dark eagernesS. But the wishes of spring in Alaska's little mountain, originate more definitely in the heart, how like they are to the simple true wishes of children. Each of them is such a wish as this, or one that is comparable-for a little town in the mountains like Petersburg, Alaska, where time iS an unhurried element, and there are pine, hemlock and spruce trees, and beautiful green fern and water gleaming in the ever changing NarroWs; where a friend understands and shares your joys, your sorrows, and yCur tearsi! These are the vital instincts that persist. The breath of salt water and the mountains is generous and quickening. Tn the clear coolnesS of it, wet with spray, the heart is uplifted as a seagull is borne, and the vision cannot weary of that changing, mystic sameness of sea water. For the crests curve like wild moose that. plunge, and the headlands thunder to the tide, and the secret and illimitable sea takes one to herself as she has ever taken. It is in this man. ner that the valleys, broad beyond our vision, speaks inti- rlately to those who have an af- lection for little mountain towns. Golden and green the wild can yon, gorges and valleys unfold to the very verge of the sky. With out trail, without home, without haven, and the waterfowl are talking to the sun. Cupped in its shallow swales dream the name less strange lakes with a broad garth deepest green to circle each, and to these the f1ocks come on the south wind-th9 wind that is possessed by the valleys as her own. For not any where else, by land or sea is the south wind so welome, and Of such f1eecy, living softness as at spring time
 It is freedom to be there in the little mountain town of Petersburg Alaska, where pines and Sitka spruces grow, and where the clefts and canyons zig gag up purple shadows, tres5- ed with wild flowers It is free dom and peace to be there, at this time of year or another, and ] often wonder if they who dwell in such charming places as Petersburg, Alaska, looking down to the valley-Who dwell where the streams have their origin, and no taint is on the wind, prize as they should the great privilege that is theirs. For they are lifted above the world as . bird is lifted, and all their flow CTS are mountain flowers, and they have, too, the resinous mountain air. And whether this 6rouses without wind or wakes to make a harp of the trees there is no air like it elsewhere for joyousness, for healing, and for widening ones arms to have.
 For one might fall asleep in the valley to open ones eyes where nature is gnarled and
 furnished and fhe watpr in thn