When we at last crowned the ridge, we found him, just
as Harry had predicted, stretched in a half recumbent attitude, leaning
against a huge gray stone, with his fur cap and double-barrel lying upon
the withered leaves beside him, puffing, as Archer told him, to his
mighty indignation, like a great grampus in shoal water.
After a little rest, however, Falstaff revived, though not before he had
imbibed about a pint of applejack, an occupation in which he could not
persuade either of us, this time, to join him. Descending from our
elevated perch, we now got into a deep glen, with a small brooklet
winding along the bottom, bordered on either hand by a stripe of marshy
bog earth, bearing a low growth of alder bushes, mixed with stunted
willows. On the side opposite to that by which we had descended, the
hill rose long and lofty, covered with mighty timber-trees standing in
open ranks and overshadowing a rugged and unequal surface, covered with
whortleberry, wintergreen, and cranberries, the latter growing only
along the courses of the little runnels, which channeled the whole
slope. Here, stony ledges and gray broken crags peered through the
underwood, among the crevices of which the stunted cedars stood thick
set, and matted with a thousand creeping vines and brambles; while
there, from some small marshy basin, the giant Rhododendron Maximum rose
almost to the height of a timber tree.
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