Year: 1871

THE ADVENTURES OF AN AFTERNOON.


KEENE HIGHTs, July 3l.--It is as wet "a it
can well be without actually raining. TIE atmosphere
is saturated the earth is soaked the brooks are fuller
than they have been known TO be this side Of Octo
ber and roar down their widencd channels with
increasing sound 1t began to rain, by fits and starts
about two weeks ego and has kept tup with constantly
decreasing intervals, ever since First came what Mr..
Tennyson world call "sunt bursts OF rain beautiful
Summer showers, with the sun shining brightly all the
while and the hailstones sparkling like diamonds on
their silver threads. Ut is raining fast now Then
showers OF darker hue before which the sun Withdrew


into cloud burst forth again, and make every
thing fash and glitter in the brilliant light But now
We are in a duvia period, when alternate between
rain and mist when we can only choose between Il
gradual soak and rapid ducking, when mountains ap
pear and disappear among the yapOrs as II by magic,
and little clouds come down and nestle lovingly
among the trees, and behind the barn, and
we can have our heads In the clouds" at moments
notice when the very chickens have given mp in
despair and go about in resoute but depress sed
ner, with dripping and detected plumage; when the
ground Is Ike sponge, and the trees like sh0werbah
with the string In perpetual state of action when all
all the roads under water and all the bridges broken
down when everybody is moist, unpleasant BODY
when house begins to be considered desirable instead
OF an Objectionable feature in the landscape, and the
most ardent admirer of openair life coneacends TO re-
tire at least beneath the piazza.


We perched gentle elevation, about 1900 feet
above the sea, and 40 above the level of Kcene Flats,
which gives every right to chrisen this spot Ivy the
more euphonious and satisfactory OF Kcenc
Hghs. Befores the Jagged outlines OF the Gothic
Mountains; left the high point of Cames
Hump hides Dx's Peak and the OF that range from
US while, behind the crest back of us, the Giant
or the Valley turks The woods come close up all around
us aud the perpetual of Beedes Brook makes music
in II test to apply TO books also
bring them face TO lace with the grand stern pheTe
OF these mountain soltudes TO contrast them with the
stones and the books in the running brooks
Poetry and prose that ourshed and bloomed in the ar


fetal air or the library, to wher and shrive into
pettness up here Their beauty becomes faded and in
Significant their sentiment mawksh their pathos forced
and unnatural, their pictures OF life artificial and frvo
lous There is poet except Shakespeare that know
OF who thoroughly stands the test Of the hills.


You are suppose that 1t has ralned every minute
hard az IL II raining We do occasionally have
lucid interval long enough TO enable Us to out and
get caught In the next shower Yesterday we had a
variety OF damp experiences series of cearing-up
showers" which began about breakfast time terminated
half hour before dinner and sailed forth to look
at Roaring Brook Falls while the water high, brooks
here having agility in rising aud falling only 10 be
equaled by Thermometer in Spring, the price Of
gold in time. The cascade comes down
over a cliff at least 400 feet high. aud
takes two or three eaps through deep cut worn be-
tween the rocks to fall kissing and foaming and roaring
into the amber pool below. II matter Of doubt
whether 1t was wetter work going up the bed OF the
stream, stepping on reacherous stones that rolled
and let the foot into the cold foam sliding of slippery
sticks ana getting thoroughly bedewed with spray mean.
Mhhe OF 10 take arms against sea OF troubles and dive
into the woods among the ndcrbrush, wadng In wet
leaves to our knees bringing down sudden douchc4 upon
our head. ana generally bo-p1tcrng ourselves There
tore We inca Dolh ways, and did the thug up thor